Total Solar Eclipses in France

In the same country, the spectacle of a total solar eclipse of the Sun is rare. Thus, at a given location, several centuries may elapse between two meetings of the Moon and the Sun. Before the 2081 September 3 total solar eclipse, the 1999 August 11 one, showed us how popular, original and unforgettable this event is. On 2090 September 23^rd, northern France will be again under the moon’s shadow for another total solar eclipse at sunset. Unfortunately I won’t likely see them from my home!
The archives of the past give us pretty poor evidence. During the last millennium, the 968 December 22 total solar eclipse that crossed France from the northwest to the southeast was the first one mentioned. Here is what was said of the 1033 June 29 annular: "It was extremely awful. Indeed, the Sun took a sapphire color, showing only its upper part that looked like a 4-day old moon crescent", at Cluny where the eclipse was a 99.4% partial. The one on 1239 June 3 is depicted in Montpellier where the King Jean the Conqueror just arived: "The day was so dark that we could see stars in the sky." On 1333 May 14, Johannes de Muris observed an eclipse in Evreux, along with three other friars of his congregation and in the presence of the Queen of Navarre. He noted that the phenomenon started 17 minutes earlier than planned by the astronomical Alfonsine tables. In the year 1406, a total solar eclipse plunges Paris into darkness. The remarkable "darkness" of the 1605 October 12 is brought up in Marseille.

In the fifteenth century, the time difference between the predictions and observations can reach half an hour to an hour. But a few years later, using revised tables of the Moon astronomers were able to predict eclipses to an accurracy of a few minutes, and La Hire indicated in 1706 a gap of only a minute and a half, reported four centuries later the abbot Moreux in his book Les éclipses. During the Renaissance, an eclipse is synonymous to terror for many people who see a warning sign of vengeance from the sky. The abbot Moreux wrote "the crowd invaded the churches and clergymen failed to confess everybody". Then a priest near Paris who could no longer handle the task had a fairly innovative idea. The previous evening, exhausted and unable to do more, he came out of the confessional, climbed the degrees of the pulpit and addressed the crowd: "My brothers, he said, because of the 'sudden rush of people, astronomers have decided to postponed the eclipse fortnight.' The chronic failed to tell us if the parishioners returned the day after the eclipse."
Then in the next three centuries, nine total or annular solar eclipses have been recorded in France. Three in the eighteenth century: the totals of 1706 May 12 and 1724 May 22, and the annular of 1764 April 1^st. Three others in the nineteenth century: an annular on 1820 September 7, a total on 1842 July 8 which lasted more than two minutes and hit Montpellier, Perpignan, Narbonne, Marseille and Toulon, and an annular on 1847 October 9. The three eclipses observed in the twentieth century are, the "pearled" 1912 April 17, the totals on 1961 February 15 and 1999 August 11.
The most famous eclipse during the eighteenth century, was the one in Paris on 1724 May 22. On this occasion, the Academy of Sciences made major preparations. King Louis XV himself wanted to make experiments. He ordered astronomers Maraldi and Cassini to come to the Trianon Palace, and observed with them the progress of the moon shadow on the white board where twelve concentric circles had been drawn. He brought from his office a thermometer and a barometer to look for, following the expression of Cassini, "the temperature and air pressure variations that might happen during the eclipse." But the weather was not that great and much better observations were made at the Paris Observatory.
The first total solar eclipse of the twentieth century that occurred in rural France has little in common with the more recent two as two world wars and a scientific and technological revolution changed permanently France. The eclipse of 1912 April 17 was visible from the southwest to northeast, around noon, on a line joining the Sables d’Olonne to Liège. To the west of Paris, in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, it was almost total: astronomers noted that it is "pearled". This means that the disappearance of the Sun between the lunar valleys and peaks is not complete so it displays a string of bright pearls. These glowing beads mark the irregular lunar limb profile and fragment the remaining crescent Sun.
The front page of the daily newspaper Humanity that day, reports: "Eclipse on Earth and in the sky (10am to 1:08pm), before emphasizing the readers attention on the change of color of beings and objects during the two seconds of totality expected. "In grim light [...], faces will take a cadaverous hue, [...] the wind of the eclipse will rise." But the headline is obliterated by another terrible news that will have a broader impact through the century "A disaster that was thought impossible: the Titanic sank, swallowing up nearly 1,500 people."

The countdown has started again. On 2081 September 3, around 8:36am, the Black Sun has another rendez-vous with France.