Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
and women, literature and publishing expanded and the
Luxembourg Palace (now the Sénat) was built.
We've all heard of Louis XIV, the 'Sun King' who
abandoned crowded and filthy Paris in 1682 for his newly
built opulent palace at Versailles, one of the most visited
palaces in the world today. Paris had some 600,000 residents
at that time, and although the streets were paved with stone
and somewhat lit at night, and in spite of its expansion to
the north and south, it was still a city of overcrowded slums.
Despite such beautiful oases as the Place Vendôme and the
Place des Victoires, and despite the flourishing of the arts
and such amenities as the first true café, Procope (which
still stands at the same spot today), the city hadn't changed
much overall. Disease and crime were rampant, and so for
the rich and powerful, it was best to be at Versailles.
The Revolution
And thus we come to poor ill-fated Louis XVI and his Austrian
wife, the pampered and hated Marie Antoinette. Actually,
by the end of the 17th century, the ideas of the liberal,
anticlerical Enlightenment were taking hold, and Paris had
assumed its place as the cultural centre of the Age of Reason.
Learning and the arts were esteemed, and life was lovely—
for individuals who could afford it. But in 1788, the French
treasury was almost bankrupt, owing to costly wars (including
the support of the American Revolution), the lavish lifestyle
of the French royalty and a disastrous harvest. People were
starving all across France. Unfortunately, Louis XVI, rather a
simple, well-meaning man, only indecisive and conservative,
yet ultimately willing to accept
some reforms, did not react. And
so, the Parisians decided that they
had had enough: the Bastille—a
prison near the present-day ultra
modern Opéra National Paris
Bastille—was taken. The active
revolution had begun. Paris—
and France—would never be
the same.
“Let them eat cake.”
It was during a bread shortage
in Paris that Marie Antoinette is
reputed to have uttered those
famous words, “Let them eat
cake”. It's not clear if she really
did so, but the populace blamed
the Austrian-born queen for
France's troubles, no matter that
Louis himself might have been a
scapegoat for the tyrannies and
excesses of his predecessors.
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