Figure 1.--Here we see a Parisian school in 1931. THe image is identified "Talange", I'm not sure if that is the name of a Paris neighborhood. The boys all seem to be wearing short pants, most with kneesocks. The long cut of the shorts suggests the early 1930s to us. The boys look about 10 years old. Presumably the school is in the background. The school seems to be a state primary school. Note that many of the boys are wearing suits. The weather must have been chilly as one any of the boys boy has a heavy long scarfe.

French boys in the 1930s commonly wore short pants. Some school portraits commonly show all the boys in a class wearing shorts. Shorts were commonly worn even in cold weather. Some boys in formal portaits might still have kneepants suits, but the great majority of boys wore short pants. The length of the shorts were still quite long in the early 30s, as we can see in the 1931 class photograph here (figure 1). Boys in the 30s tended to wear short pants all year round. We begin to see shorter cut shorts by the late 30s. Suits depending on the age commonly came with short pants. Sailor suits were commonly made with boy short or long pants. We note postrcards showing boys wearing fancy outfits, but we see few actual photograpohs of boys wearing them. School photographs like the one here are almost suyrely a better indivator as to how most French boys actually dressed. Romper suits were popular for younger boys. Some older teenagers might wear knickers before switching to long pants. Boys commonly wore short pants wsith kneesocks, especially in cold weather. Long stockings were also worn, but not very commonly. A French reader tells us, " alange is a little city near the German border. This French region is cold in winter, there begins the continental climate. Before World War II, these schoolboys spook French with an accent and still also a German dialect. I understand it with much dfficulty. Now the new generation no longer has an accent and few people still speak their dialect."