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Amazing Color Photos of France After D-Day
In honor of the anniversary of D-Day, LIFE granted us permission to reprint a few photographs from their World War II archives. In stunning color, here's a look at life in France in the summer of 1944.
Frank Scherschel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Original caption: All the civilized world loves France and Paris. Americans share this love with a special intimacy born in the kinship of our revolutions, our ideas and our alliances in two great wars.
Frank Scherschel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Original caption: A French couple shares cognac with an American tank crew, northern France, summer 1944.
See Also: Before & After D-Day: Color Photos from England and France
Frank Scherschel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Original caption: Jeeps (including a press vehicle) in the town square, Marigny (Manche), Normandy, 1944.
See Also: Color Photos from Normandy, Summer 1944
Frank Scherschel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Original caption: American Army trucks (note cyclist hitching a ride) parade down the Champs-Elysées the day after the liberation of Paris by French and Allied troops, August 1944.
Frank Scherschel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Original caption: Paris is like a magic sword in a fairy tale — a shining power in those hands to which it rightly belongs, in other hands tinsel and lead. Whenever the City of Light changes hands, Western Civilization shifts its political balance. So it has been for seven centuries; so it was in 1940; so it was last week.
See Also: Rare Photos from the Allied Invasion of Southern France
Bonus: The First Organized Show for American Troops After D-Day
Ralph Morse—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
LIFE also has a separate gallery of post-D-Day images from the first organized show for American troops in Normandy. There are dancers, acrobats, and this terrifying clown.