Road through Rural Paris
July 8, 1789
On the way to Paris, I passed several large farms but a notably, small portion of each was actually tilled and planted. Peasants seemed to be willing the crops to grow, and their bodies clearly showed signs of inadequate food. A child ran over and asked if I had any bread and as I replied, his mother approached and apologized for her son's intrusion. She further explained that bread prices had risen, again. After taxes and tithes, there was not enough money to purchase bread. There was desperation in her voice, and as I left, she stared down the road in the direction from which I had come...
Storming of the Bastille- July 14, 1789 Paris
July 14, 1789
As soon as I had entered the city, the smell of gunpowder filled my nostrils. Soldiers and common people shouted, muskets fired, and swords clashed as I found shelter behind a nearby building. The crowd that attacked the Bastille was not a foreign enemy, but Parisians, women and men! From my position, I heard a man yell to his companions to grab any gunpowder, shot, weapons, and food that he could, once they gained entry. Others shouted passionate cries of patriotic sentiments. As there were only a few prisoners residing in the prison, I reasoned that this attack was not motivated by a person to free an individual...but rather the people to free a nation. They sought to erase the tyranny of the monarchy. As the stone crumbled, I sensed that the monarchy was not far behind.
The crowd trampled and kicked the Governor of the Bastille, before they decapitated him and placed his head on a pike. Paris had descended into a state of violent chaos.
Late July- Early August 1789
After the attack on the Bastille, rumors spread across the countryside of a plot to starve the revolutionaries into submission. I was not a witness to the acts, but I saw smoke rising from a few seigneurial estates. The fear and anger was almost palpable.
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