Today we heard news of… Miss France 1949!

Last week a lady got in touch with us via the archive’s Facebook page saying that she had discovered a film in our archive of her mother winning the Miss France beauty contest in 1949!

Veronique Tissier’s mother Juliette Figueras won the contest in 1949 before going on to win Miss Europe in 1950 (the contest was held in Sicile, Italy). We are thrilled to say that Juliette lives near Antibes on the Cote D’Azur and is healthy still at the age of 82. You can watch the video by clicking on the image above.

 Here are some more recent photos that Veronique sent us of her mother:

A recent photgraph of Juliette - still looking great for her age!

Here is Juliette with her grandaughter (Veronique's daughter), and her mother. So all in all, including Veronique, that's four generations - fantastic!And here is Juliette being crowned Miss Europe in 1950!And here Juliette is being crowned Miss Europe in 1950!

Juliette’s sister will be visiting her from the Beaux de Provences soon and so Veronique is going to organise a surprise screening of the British Pathé video for her! Before discovering the video in our free online archive www.britishpathe.com Veronique had no idea that the British Pathé clip even existed and only had photographs of the contest.

If anyone can locate footage or photos of the Miss Europe contest in Sicile, 1950 then please do get in touch. The British Pathé film archive sends its best wishes to Juliette and her family, we hope you all enjoy the surprise screening and enjoy life in the south of France!

There are lots of videos of beauty pageants and contests in the archive, so do have a rummage, you could start with these four videos, or just go to the homepage www.britishpathe.com and start searching!

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