The vast majority of French people rallied to the war effort, including socialists. There were very few deserters - less than 1% of mobilized men in 1914 dodged their service. And most of these men were living abroad rather than actively avoiding the war, so the number of true deserters should be deflated even more. This was a pleasant surprise to the French government, who had planned for at least 10% of men to avoid showing up for service.

Nevertheless, that still means that just over 10,000 men refused to mobilize in 1914, so we know that avoiding the draft was not impossible. But in this hypothetical situation you would have a much more practical problem. As a 20-year old you would already have been called up into the army the year before! The Three Years Law of 1913 stipulated that all French men would actively serve in the army for three years, starting at 19 years old. On August 1st 1914, then, you would already be taking part in your active service somewhere, maybe in Morocco, or more likely on the border with Germany or Belgium. This was an unlucky class of conscripts who were destined to take part in the bloodiest battles of the war along the frontier in August 1914.

Let’s say though that you are a little older and already completed your active service, or are a little younger and haven’t yet been called up. In that case, it wouldn’t be impossible to dodge your service. Of the 10,079 men who did not turn up for mobilization in 1914, only 271 were arrested by the end of the year. The duty to mobilize was not actually enforced that well, partly because the government was pleased that so few men had refused to go, partly because many policemen, gendarmes, and government functionaries had themselves been mobilized, and so the forces of law and order were not really up to the task. Leaving France was one of the prime ways of getting out of the war. Administrative records show that the areas with the highest rates of draft-dodging were also the areas with the highest rates of pre-war emigration, near major ports like Nantes, Bordeaux, and Marseille, where many emigrants left for Latin America and North Africa. Technically, the UK would be a less attractive option, because as France’s military ally it would also be expected to upheld French conscription laws, although in reality it seems that most French who lived in Entente nations like the UK and Italy never got turned in. Escaping through immigration would thus be a viable option – but harder for a Parisian, who would have to get to the coast first.

Still, it appears to have been relatively easy to escape France or lie low throughout the war. The government did not actively begin seeking out draft-dodgers until 1916. There were many places where you could live in relative peace throughout the war, in crowded Paris or the isolated, rural Midi, whereas in other places smaller populations or unfavorable geography could make it difficult to escape or hide. In Rennes for example the police arrested 30% of the 1914 draft-dodgers. Even then most of the round-ups which police conducted were local operations rather than parts of a nationwide policy, and controls against deserters were only intensified after the war.

So, in short, while very few French dodged the mobilization order in 1914, those who did had a good chance of avoiding service throughout the war, either through emigrating or through laying low in France.

Sources:

Boulanger, Phillipe. La France devant la conscription : Géographie historique d’une institution républicaine 1914-1922. Paris : Economica et Institut de Stratégie Comparée, 2001. See pages 172-200.

Cabanes, Bruno. August 1914: France, the Great War, and a Month that Changed the World Forever. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016.