Historia
Sunday, February 05, 2006
1789 : RéVOluTION FrANçAISe
That year, 1789, opened a weird period, and it was the moment when the 'eruption', as Victor Hugo called it, broke out.
Almost right from the beginning, Paris was on the stage ; already ready to take matters in its hand.
"Les Etats Généraux" were being held at Versailles, two hours away from Paris. People were coming and going, to carry the news, between the two cities. Most often, the news arrived in Paris at the Palais Royal.
I always wonder what life was like in Paris between 1789 and 1799. Crazy, frightened, bloody, savage, boiling with ideas, symbols and flags, and noisy with the sounds of busy guillotines. 1 119 persons had a "headcut" place de la Concorde. Patriotic. Clubs were blooming like mad. You can bet the streets were full of sans culottes.
My favorite newspaper from that time is Le père Duchesne, created by Hébert. If that newspaper tattled that you were against the republic, you were very likely to have a headcut, or rather, "try the tie of Capet" (Capet being Louis XVI name) - essayer la cravate à Capet-. Hébert called the guillotine : the national razor! (le rasoir national).
Paris !
Looking behind us, we see Paris everywhere - above all in France, surprisingly.
It's because Paris is the only city in the universe which is in the state of a volcano. Just as volcanos communicate with the bowels of the earth, Paris communicates with the masses, with the deep and seething furnace of the subterranean misfortunes, with the bowels of the people. It's been sixty years since the eruption broke out and it isn't slowing down. Wherever something trembles in the universe it's a jolt from Paris. This strange city is not a city. It's the support of the universal lever.
C'est que Paris est la seule ville de l'univers qui soit à l'état de volcan. De
même que les volcans sont en communication avec les entrailles de la terre, Paris est en communication avec les masses, avec la fournaise profonde et bouillonnante des misères souterraines, avec les entrailles du peuple. Voilà soixante ans que l'erruption a éclaté et elle ne faiblit pas. [...] Partout où quelque chose tremble dans l'univers, c'est une secousse de Paris.
[...] Cette ville étrange, ce n'est pas une ville. C'est le point d'appui du
levier universel.Victor Hugo, June 1848