V-O (female), added to explain the cultural context of the radio message: "In September 1914, several thousand French soldiers were transported by taxi to the river Marne to prevent German troops from advancing into Paris. The following radio spot is inspired by this event, which is known in France as “Taxis of the Marne”."

France has not endured war on its own territory for nearly half a century. At least two generations of French people do not know anything but peace. For them, war has no reality.

We wanted to make people realize how lucky they were to live in 2014 and not a century before. So we thought about something very common, an item used on an everyday basis... when it is raining: an umbrella. But we added a little surprise to it: when you opened it, you were facing a 360° WW1 landscape, where many shells were exploding. And a line was saying: "In 1914, nothing would have protected you from the kind of rain pouring down".

We made a prototype then the final one. And in December 2014, we made a deal with some hotel chains around Gare de l'Est train station: we furnished them some umbrellas they could lend for free to their guests. Sober objects on the outside, but quite astonishing inside. A strong and instant parallel between our lucky times and that dark era of 1914-1918, when millions of men were suddenly thrown into war.

More over, this idea was perfectly in line with the baseline we launched in 2012: "Experience what nobody should have ever experienced".

Thousands of hotel guests around Gare de l'Est have already been lent a free umbrella.

The umbrella was quoted by tens of bloggers and journalists it had also been sent to.

The number of visitors on location increased of nearly 5% during the month following the launch of the project.

The umbrella is still available at the Museum's store: 35€. A reasonable price compared to the one paid by ten millions of soldiers, who never made it back home.