The record for the fastest 20 metre run flat while wearing standard scuba-diving flippers is 3.50 seconds by Christophe Bertaux on the set of L’Emission des Records, Paris, France, on 29 March 2000.

The highest speed recorded by a train on any national rail system (as opposed to dedicated test track) is 574.8 km/h (357.2 mph; 159.6 m/s) by a French SNCF modified version of the TGV called V150 (with larger wheels than usual and two engines driving three double-decker cars) on 3 April 2007. The peak speed was achieved near to the village of Le Chemin between the Meuse and Champagne-Ardenne TGV stations that will service the high-speed rail line from Paris to Strasbourg, France (TGV Est, Continue reading →

The fastest walk 50,000 metres (male) was 3 hr 35 min 27.2 sec by Yohann Diniz (France) in Reims, France, on 12 March 2011.

Alain Dorotte (France) opened 13 wine bottles with a ‘T-handled’ cork screw (non-leverage) in one minute on the set of L’Émission des Records, Paris, France on 18 April 2001

The first time that a ship was used for airborne operations occured in 1806 when Lord Thomas Cochrane of the British Royal Navy launched kites from HMS Pallas (a 32-gun frigate) in order to drop propaganda leaflets on French territory.

On 23 December 2006, a wood and fabric single seat aircraft (the Electra F-WMDJ) flew for 48 minutes for 50 km (30 miles) around the southern Alps in France powered by an electric, 25-horsepower British-made motor used often to power golf carts!

Often hailed as the ‘founding fathers of modern film’, the Lumiere Brothers, Louis and Auguste, can take credit for the first commercial exhibition of a projected motion picture to a paying public in 1895, in the world’s first movie theatre – the Salon Indien, at the Grand Cafe on Paris’ Boulevard des Capucines. The 20-minute program included ten short films with twenty showings a day.

The capital punishment of animals dates back to at least the early medieval period, with the earliest known documented case involving a pig tried and burnt for eating a child. The trial of the infanticidal pig took place in 1266 in Fontenay-aux-Roses, France, and was overseen by the monks of St Genevieve. It was usually illegal to execute without trial in Medieval Europe, so everyone and anything would face a judge if suspected of a capital crime. Dogs, pigs, cows, horses and even bulls went Continue reading →

Female athletes competed in the Olympics for the first time at the 1900 Games held in Paris, France. Alongside the 975 male athletes, a total of 22 women competed for glory in sports such as tennis and golf.

The earliest full-scale automobile was the first of two military steam tractors, completed at the Paris Arsenal in October 1769 by Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot (1725-1804). It reached a maximum speed of 4km/h (2.5mph). Cugnot’s second, larger tractor, completed in May 1771, today survives in the Conservatoire Nationale des Arts et Métiers in Paris. The first of Cugnot’s vehicles, the voiture et petit (‘carriage in miniature’) was authorized by the Minister of War for the carrying of cannons. It was tested early in 1770 and could carry Continue reading →