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The Uniqueness of Paris

Stew Ross (author) sitting on Sanson grave at Montmartre Cemetery. (Photo by Dan Owen)
Stew Ross (author) sitting on Sanson grave at Montmartre Cemetery. (Photo by Dan Owen)

Always Enough To Do

How many times have you visited a city you’ve always wanted to see, and allotted, a certain amount of days only to find out once you get there that you can see everything in half the time?

Yet there are other cities that it doesn’t matter how many times you return there is always enough things to do, to learn, and experience.

That is the uniqueness of Paris.

There aren’t that many cities in the world that you return to for the twelfth time and you’re still experiencing new things. There’s London, Rome, Tokyo, and New York City to mention a few.

I would never discourage first timers to Paris to disregard the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Tuileries Gardens, or a boat ride on the Seine. Any other city and they are called, “Tourist Traps” – not in Paris.

More Than the Eiffel Tower

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The Women of the French Revolution

Women
A Versailles, à Versailles du 5 Octobre 1789. Illustration (unknown). Bibliothèque nationale de France. PD+100; PD-US-No Notice. Wikimedia Commons.

The Many Layers of Women

One of the more fascinating aspects of my research on the French Revolution has been the role that women played in the Revolution. While I’m no historian and have limited knowledge of historical world events, I have never run across such a significant event in which women were the catalysts for such important components. While it’s the men that receive most of the attention (as well as several keynote women such as Marie Antoinette), if you scratch the surface, you’ll find many layers of women whose actions contributed to those turbulent times.

For simplicity sake (at least for my simple mind), I’ve categorized the women into groups: royalty, nobility, citizens (known as sans-culottes), the salons, and the feminists. We can talk about each of these groups but the real forces behind many of the pivotal events of the Revolution were the female citizens of Paris – the working class of Paris or sans-culottes.

Food was scarce. Bread was hard to come by. The weather had taken its toll on the harvests for several consecutive years. It was the woman’s responsibility to feed the family. It was the woman who held her baby who screamed as he slowly died from starvation. These women got mad. They demanded change.

Women Stormed the Bastille Too!

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