Vichy France is the common name of the French State headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. It represented the unoccupied "Free Zone" in the southern part of metropolitan France and the French colonial empire. From 1940 to 1942, while the Vichy regime was the nominal government of all of France except Alsace-Lorraine, the German militarily occupied northern France. While Paris remained the de jure capital of France, the government chose to relocate to the town of Vichy, which thus became the de facto capital of the French State.