I absolutely adore these old photographs mes belles!!!!!

The City of Love as you have never seen it: Amazing collection of photographs from 1914 captures everyday life in Paris

Pictures taken from a huge collection at the Albert Kahn Museum in Paris
Millionaire banker Khan paid photographers to travel the world

PUBLISHED: 18:13 GMT, 22 November 2012 | UPDATED: 18:16 GMT, 22 November 2012

It is known as the City of Love, where couples flock to capture the magic of their romance.

But a set of gritty photographs almost 100-years-old captures a side of Paris that most people will never know existed.

The 1914 pictures, taken from a collection at the Albert Kahn Museum in Paris, paint a vivid picture of everyday life in the French capital.

The original version of the famous club, pictured a year before it burnt down, is part of the 1914 collection taken from the Albert Kahn Museum

Cabaret: The original version of the famous club, pictured a year before it burnt down, is part of the 1914 collection taken from the Albert Kahn Museum

Picturesque: A young boy pushes a cart through an open Parisian square as men in bowler hats watch on

The Moulin Rouge, now one of the city's favourite tourist destinations, is captured in its original form only a year before it was burnt down in 1915.

The picture shows the cabaret club's famous red windmill long before the venue was widely popularised in the 2001 Hollywood film starring Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor.

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Among the collection is another picture of an old Parisian cinema, the Aubert Palace.

But away from the city's bright lights, the most revealing aspect of the collection is the portrayal of life for Parisians during the early twentieth century.

Family Life: A Parisian family poses for a photographer outside their home

A moment of rest: A horse stops on a road under a brooding Paris sky as it carries a cart filled with rubble

A young boy is photographed pushing an overloaded cart through a public square, while a family are pictured sitting outside their modest home.

In another poignant picture, a uniformed soldier with a wooden leg stands beside a cannon

The pictures are taken from the Albert Kahn Museum in Paris.

Retro: A desolate shopping street reveals the beautiful colours and typography on the shopfronts

Paused for thought: A uniformed soldier with a wooden leg looks into the distance as he stands beside a cannon

Mr Kahn, a French millionaire banker and philanthropist, undertook an ambitious project in 1909 to create a vast photographic collection.

He sent a group of photographers to more than fifty countries around the world, capturing images, often from important points in their history, to be shared with others.

Kahn's love affair with colour photography was brought to an end by the Wall Street Crisis, which caused his fortunes to vanish and forced him to terminate the project in 1931.

His legacy of more than 72,000 photographs, including the early shots of his beloved Paris, are now available for people to view at the Albert Kahn Museum on the grounds of his estate in Paris.

Kahn's photographs were the basis of a ten-part BBC documentary The Wonderful World of Albert Kahn released in 2009.