Marianne: The Woman Who Became France
She stands in every town hall, gazes out from stamps and coins, and bears the full weight of liberté, égalité, fraternité. But who is she, really?
Bonjour!
This is the third instalment in my special Substack series about France’s national symbols, building up to Bastille Day. After exploring the tricolour flag and the fiery anthem of La Marseillaise, we now turn to a quieter presence – ever visible, rarely questioned: Marianne.
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The woman in the room
If you've ever visited a mairie (town hall) in France, chances are she was there.
Somewhere near the reception desk, or behind the mayor’s chair.
A bust of a woman – calm, confident, wearing a peculiar hat. Sometimes her eyes are piercing, sometimes soft. Sometimes she’s glamorous, sometimes she looks like your cousin from Toulouse. She doesn’t speak. But she’s watching.
That woman is Marianne.
She’s not an elected official. She’s not a historical figure, either. And yet she might be the most recognisable woman in France.
More than Brigitte Bardot, more than Joan of Arc, more than Catherine Deneuve. Even more than the Virgin Mary.
In fact, she's something else entirely: a symbol. An ideal. A sort of secular saint for the French Republic.
But the strangest part is how easy it is not to notice her at all. For years, I didn’t.
Not really. She was just “the bust” at the town hall, or the anonymous face on old stamps.
But once I started teaching the French Republic to non-French speakers, I found myself stumbling over the same question again and again:
Who is she? And why her?
So let’s dive in. Because behind her calm exterior, Marianne’s story is one of revolutions, ridicule, reinventions – and just a little bit of glamour.
Why a woman?
Let’s begin with the obvious: why is France, a proudly secular Republic, represented by a woman?
To answer that, you have to travel back to the late 18th century, when France was shaking off its monarchy and desperately looking for new symbols.
Out with the king, the crown, and the divine right. In with… what exactly?
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