Places

Famous Places

From Saint-Pierre and Miquelon to Chicago, via Cognac, Reims, New York and Montreal, American Prohibition left its mark on places far beyond the borders of the United States. Behind the stories of bootleggers, gangsters and smugglers lie territories whose destinies were profoundly shaped by one of the most ambitious social experiments of the twentieth century.

Some of these places have become legendary. Chicago immediately conjures images of Al Capone, organized crime and underground speakeasies. New York recalls the glamour of the Roaring Twenties, jazz clubs and sophisticated smuggling networks that supplied an insatiable city. Yet many other locations, often overlooked by history, played an equally important role in the rise of the illicit alcohol trade.

Thousands of miles from the American mainland, the small French archipelago of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon emerged as one of the world’s most strategic hubs for alcohol smuggling. For more than a decade, millions of bottles of whisky, champagne, cognac and wine passed through its warehouses before being secretly transported to the United States.

Prohibition was not only a story of ports and shipping routes. It also transformed the fortunes of French wine-growing regions and spirits producers. In Cognac, Champagne and other renowned production areas, American demand created unexpected economic opportunities that reshaped local industries during the interwar years.

This section explores the cities, ports, islands and territories that became key actors in this extraordinary chapter of history. Each location reveals a different aspect of the transatlantic networks that connected France and America through commerce, politics, smuggling and human ambition. Together, they form the geographical map of one of the most fascinating stories of the modern era.