France's minister of women's rights, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, has revoked a 200-year-old law that forbids Parisian women wearing trousers in public.
'This law is incompatible with the principles of equality between men and women which is laid out in the constitution and in France's European commitments,' she said, Le Parisien reported.
The law meant that women could be arrested by police for wearing trousers in Paris.
There has been talk of repealing the law over the years but apparently nobody cared enough to do something about it.
The decree, which was obviously not widely applied, was amended at the turn of the century to allow trousers only 'if the woman is holding a bicycle handlebar or the reins of a horse,' the UK Telegraph reported.
The law was passed on November 7, 1799.
The restriction came during the upheaval following the French Revolution when the 'sans culottes' movement - French revolutionary rebels - refused to wear knee-breeches and chose to wear pants, Le Parisien said.
Women had strict restrictions on their clothing before and after the revolution.
