[2] Joseph Athanase Doumer was born in Aurillac, in the Cantal département, in France on 22 March 1857, into a family of modest means.

They had eight children, four of whom were killed in the First World War (including the French air ace René Doumer).

[5][6][7] He made his debut in politics in 1885 as chef de cabinet to Charles Floquet, then president of the Chamber of Deputies (a post equivalent to the speaker of the House of Commons).

The Vietnamese, Cambodians and Laotians who could not or would not pay these taxes, lost their houses and land, and often became day laborers.

[9] Doumer set about outfitting Indochina, especially Hanoi, the capital, with modern infrastructure befitting property of France.

Tree-lined avenues and a large number of French colonial buildings were constructed in Hanoi during his governance.

He was elected President of the French Republic on 13 May 1931, defeating the better known Aristide Briand, and replacing Gaston Doumergue.

[12] On 6 May 1932, Paul Doumer was in Paris at the opening of a book fair at the Hôtel Salomon de Rothschild, talking to author Claude Farrère.