50 years ago, Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport was soberly inaugurated by Prime Minister Pierre Messmer. Five days earlier 346 people lost their lives in the crash of the Turkish Airlines DC-10 about twenty kilometers away.
The first oil shock marked the end of the thirty glorious years, dampening the general euphoria of the 1960s. The location had been carefully chosen: 3,000 hectares of agricultural plain in the Val d'Oise, 25 kilometers from Notre-Dame.