Edouard Hubert, Un lundi de fete, place Saint-Pierre a Montmartre in 1861. This painting is now in the musee Carnavalet. Note the early ferris wheel on the right of the painting. Charles Marville is the photographer, and the book, Le Nouveau Paris is edited by Philippe Mellot.

Charles Garnier starts construction on l'Opera de Paris. (CHF)

The Paris journal Le Temps is founded by Auguste Nefftzer.

A railroad bridge ~180 meters high is constructed on the Paris - Brest line. (AF)

The bicycle pedal is invented, making this a much more practical device. A factory opens in Paris on avenue de la Grande-Armee (16th/17th arrondissement border) to manufacture the cycles. (AF)

More broadly this is a year for military adventures:

> The start of a war in Cochin China. This is today known as Vietnam and its capital city, then as through much of the 20th century, is Saigon. The trigger was the murder of French and Spanish missionaries. (CHF)

> A war starts in Mexico, to protect French interests. A joint Anglo-French-Spanish force landed in Veracruz, with the intention of collecting Mexican debts to these countries. (CHF)

> Julie Daubie becomes the first female to receive a baccalaureate degree from a French institution - in Lyon. (AF)

Other events:

The first tourist guide for France is published, Itineraire general de la France. (CHF)

Pasteur refutes the concept of spontaneous generation. (CHF)

The alarm signal, or whistle, makes its first appearance on French trains. (CHF)

The village of La Roche-sur-Foron becomes the first French village to be electrified. (CHF)

Russian serfs are emancipated. (CHF)