It's illegal for women to wear pants in Paris

04 February 2013 - 19:00 By Sapa-AP
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Czech model Karolina Kurkova presents a strapped black top with matching pants. File photo.
Czech model Karolina Kurkova presents a strapped black top with matching pants. File photo.
Image: AFP PHOTO JEAN-PIERRE MULLER

If it isn't already daunting enough to pack for a trip to fashionable Paris, female visitors, beware: It's illegal to wear pants.

So says a law dating from 1800 that has never been taken off the books -only relaxed to allow women the comfort of two legs when riding bicycles or horses.

French parliamentarians have occasionally pushed for the law to be set aside, and a senator from the opposition UMP party recently asked again for the government to do just that.

The Ministry for Women's Rights said what everyone was thinking last week: This law has been superseded by other laws, including the Constitution's commitment to equal rights.

But the ministry said it remains on the books "as an element of the archives kept by the Paris police."

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