Du pont de Neuilly à la Défense Grande fête de foraine 1937

This whimsical and lively poster from 1937 advertises the Grande Fête Foraine (Great Funfair) held between Pont de Neuilly and La Défense, an event sponsored by the municipalities of Courbevoie and Puteaux, on the western edge of Paris. Designed with vivid narrative flair, the image celebrates both the era’s festive spirit and the rise of suburban leisure culture in interwar France.

In the foreground, animated figures—men, women, and children—joyfully ride on brightly painted carousel bulls, clinging to vertical poles, their faces lit with the thrill of movement and amusement. The charmingly exaggerated animals, frozen mid-gallop, evoke the vibrant energy of fairgrounds, while also reflecting the pastoral memory of a region that would soon evolve into the modern business hub of La Défense.

Behind them, the bold blue and brown arch of the Pont de Neuilly dominates the upper half of the poster, forming both a literal and symbolic passage: from the old to the new, from the riverside to the rapidly urbanizing plain of La Défense. The typography, with its layered, shadowed block letters, adds visual rhythm, guiding the viewer’s eye through the playful chaos of the scene and toward the fair’s essential details.

This poster is a fascinating urban artifact, capturing a specific transitional moment in the Parisian landscape. Before La Défense became a skyline of glass towers and concrete esplanades, it was a place of fairs, circuses, and weekend diversions. The fairground itself ran from June 5th to 28th, 1937, contemporaneous with the Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne across the Seine, linking this ephemeral local event with a larger national mood of innovation and festivity.

It also stands as a snapshot of popular transportation, listing the available metro (Line 1, Les Sablons) and buses of the time, making it a functional as well as promotional object.

Delightfully rendered and richly evocative, this original poster is an exceptional piece for collectors of French cultural ephemera, pre-war urban design, or historical transit art, encapsulating the cheerful escapism and visual charm of 1930s Parisian suburbs on the cusp of transformation.

Show - Games - Hauts-de-Seine - France

Cities of Courbevoie and Puteaux

Printed by Andravy in La Garenne

Good condition, light soiling