French carpets
The French production of handmade carpets began in 1608 as an initiative of Henry IV. The Turkish carpets served as models and the carpets were woven with symmetrical knots.
The production was moved in 1628 outside of Paris to a closed soap factory giving the name of Savonnerie. The earliest produced caprets from there were often called Louis XII carpets, which is misleading because they were made during the early reign of Louis XIV. The carpets were decorated with flowers, often in vases or baskets, but also military motifs and motifs from the architecture could be seen. The patterns were taken from Dutch and Flemish textiles and paintings. The most known Savonneri carpets, a total of 105, are the ones made for "Grande Galerie" and"Galerie d'Apollon" in the Louvre. The period of greatness in Savonnerie lasted between 1650 and 1789.
The manufacturing in Savonnerie was moved to Gobelins in Paris in 1826, a royal factory for manufacturing of woven tapestries and furniture clothing. This was done during the French revolution and the quality on the carpets went down during this time.
Manufacturing in the city of Aubusson began in 1743 in a small private owned workshop. In Beauvais handmade carpets were being manufactured between the years between 1780 to 1792. The carpets made compraised of copied Turkish designs, but changed to simpler variants of the Savonnerie style.
Nowadays there is no production to speak of in France but the styles from Savonnerie and Aubusson are copied in countries like China, India and Pakistan.