Paris from the French Revolution to Napoleon III

The moment the Third Estate broke away from the Estates-General, the French Revolution began rolling forward at full speed. On July 14, an enraged mob stormed the Bastille and took it. A few days later, the crowd marched on the Palace of Versailles and forced the king and his family to return to Paris. They would never see the grand palace again for the rest of their lives.

At first, France declared itself a constitutional monarchy, but as time went on, the more extreme voices among the revolutionaries grew louder, and the king gradually lost his powers. In June 1791, the king and his family tried to flee Paris toward the Austrian border, hoping to join forces with the emperor’s army, but the escape failed and they were caught in the town of Varennes. From there, things fell apart quickly.

Following military defeats and the threat posed by the armies of Austria, Prussia and England, a political shift occurred and left-wing factions rose to power (first the Girondins, then the more radical Jacobins). The new government abolished the monarchy in September 1792. The royal family was imprisoned in the Temple fortress in the north of the Marais, and Louis XVI (r. 1774-1792) was put on trial for treason at the end of that year. After a turbulent trial, he was sentenced to death by a single vote (the deciding vote came from his own cousin, the Duke of Orléans). The king of France was beheaded at the “Place de la Révolution” (later Place de la Concorde) in January 1793, and the “Reign of Terror” began.

During this period, which lasted until July 1794, the guillotine worked nonstop, and many famous people lost their heads. The most famous examples are:

• Madame du Barry (the last mistress of Louis XV, r. 1715-1774)
• Madame Roland (one of the leaders of the Revolution, who, according to tradition, said just before her death the immortal line: “Oh Liberty, what crimes are committed in your name!”)
• And of course, Marie Antoinette (1755-1793), who was executed in October 1793.

In the end, as the Terror intensified, so did the fear of Maximilien Robespierre (1758-1794), the regime’s leader. In July 1794, in a coup known as the “Thermidorian Reaction,” Robespierre was overthrown and the Reign of Terror came to an end. And what does “Thermidor” mean? During the Revolution, France adopted a new calendar. Thermidor, named after the heat of summer (thermos in Greek), was one of the months of the revolutionary calendar.

Between 1795 and 1799, France was ruled by the “Directory,” a weak and corrupt regime. During this period, one of the greatest leaders in French history began his rise: Napoleon Bonaparte (also known as Napoleon).

A few words about Napoleon

The revolutionaries were mostly busy tearing things down, not building them up, so apart from a handful of structures, almost no architectural trace of this period remains in Paris. Napoleon, however, who seized power at the end of the Revolution, carried on the tradition of his predecessors and left a significant mark on Paris.

But before we talk about his contribution to the City of Light, a few words about the man himself. Napoleon was born in Corsica in 1769, a year after France purchased the island from Genoa. He studied at the École Militaire in Paris, and his star rose during the Revolution, when he managed to drive the English out of the city of Toulon.

After the fall of the Reign of Terror, Napoleon began climbing the ranks, won major victories in Italy (1796-1797), and in 1798 set out on a military campaign in Egypt and the Land of Israel, where he suffered a defeat at Acre and was forced to return to Paris. Napoleon understood that the leadership was corrupt and unpopular, and in 1799 he seized power in a military coup.

At first, he ruled France as one of three consuls, but quickly rose to First Consul, and in 1804 crowned himself emperor. Over the following ten years, Napoleon was mostly occupied with wars and achieved a series of brilliant victories, such as the Battle of Austerlitz and the Battle of Jena, which went down in history and lent their names to monuments across Paris.

But in 1812, Napoleon invaded Russia. His army couldn’t withstand the brutal Russian winter and the Russians’ scorched-earth tactics, and the campaign ended in a crushing military defeat and a disastrous retreat. In 1813-1814, Napoleon’s army suffered further defeats at the hands of the anti-French coalition. Eventually, the coalition armies occupied Paris, and according to legend, they invented the “bistro” along the way (to read that story, head over to the recommended articles section).

Napoleon was exiled to the island of Elba, but less than a year later he escaped and returned to France. He managed to retake control of the country and drive out King Louis XVIII, who had just returned to his throne. However, the coalition powers refused to accept his return. After a brief period of rule known as the “Hundred Days,” he was finally defeated at the Battle of Waterloo and exiled to the remote island of Saint Helena, where he died in 1821.

Napoleon builds Paris

Although Napoleon spent most of his 15 years in power fighting wars, he still managed to leave behind a grand legacy during the few years of peace. First, there’s the “Napoleonic Code,” a groundbreaking book of laws, parts of which are still in use in France today. Second, there are the building projects he launched in Paris, some of which became the city’s most recognizable landmarks.

Napoleon’s first contribution to Paris was the construction of the Canal Saint-Martin, which shortened the shipping route along the Seine and left us with a charming, romantic corner of the city. His second contribution was the western stretch of Rue de Rivoli, running alongside the Tuileries Garden. Nearby, he also launched construction of the Madeleine Church, originally meant to serve as a “Temple of Glory” for the French army. And while we’re on the subject of the 1st arrondissement, we can’t forget the column in Place Vendôme, originally cast from enemy cannons captured at the Battle of Austerlitz.

And finally, how could we forget the two triumphal arches Napoleon left behind? The first, less well known, stands at Place du Carrousel, next to the Louvre. The second is of course the Arc de Triomphe, standing at the Place de l’Étoile, whose construction wasn’t completed until 1836. It still serves today as the finish point of the military parade on July 14.

Paris keeps churning: the revolutions of 1830 and 1848

Louis XVIII (r. 1814-1824), Louis XVI’s brother who took the throne after Napoleon’s fall, was a cautious king who understood that he couldn’t turn back the clock and undo the achievements of the Revolution entirely without risking another uprising. As a result, he managed to die a natural death in his own bed in 1824, and was the last king to be buried at the Basilica of Saint-Denis. The most distinctive structure from his reign is the Chapelle Expiatoire, built on the original burial site of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.

His brother, Charles X (r. 1824-1830), didn’t share the same political wisdom. His goal was to bring France back to the days of the old regime, and he pursued an extremely conservative policy that sparked widespread opposition. When he passed a law restricting freedom of expression in July 1830, riots broke out in Paris and quickly escalated into a revolution. Within three days, Charles X was forced to give up his throne and flee to England.

The leaders of the revolution chose to crown Louis-Philippe, Duke of Orléans (r. 1830-1848), who came from a side branch of the royal family and was the son of the duke who had voted in favor of Louis XVI’s execution. Louis-Philippe, the “Citizen King,” was liberal and popular, and loved strolling through the Tuileries Garden with an umbrella in hand, greeting passersby. His reign forms the backdrop for many of Honoré de Balzac’s (1799-1850) novels, and reading books like “Père Goriot” can teach you a great deal about the mood of the time.

Although Paris kept growing during Louis-Philippe’s reign and its population passed the one million mark, he didn’t launch many building projects. Still, important projects were completed under his rule, such as the Arc de Triomphe, and the Egyptian obelisk was installed at Place de la Concorde.

One of the few structures clearly tied to his reign is the July Column at Place de la Bastille, erected in memory of those killed in the July Revolution of 1830, the very uprising that brought him to power. Another monument from his era is a small, somber chapel near the Porte Maillot, built in memory of his son Ferdinand, who died nearby in a carriage accident.

Despite his liberal policies, Louis-Philippe was never well liked. Royalists saw him as a usurper who had taken the crown from the senior branch of the Bourbon dynasty, while revolutionaries saw him as a representative of the old order who had stolen their revolution.

So throughout his reign, riots broke out from time to time and there were numerous attempts on his life. In February 1848, unrest broke out again in Paris, barricades went up once more, and Parisians took to the streets. Louis-Philippe understood the gravity of the situation, fled with his family to England, and the Second Republic was declared in Paris.

The Second Republic suffered from instability from its very first day. In the presidential election, Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte (nephew of Napoleon) was elected, to everyone’s surprise, defeating the poet Alphonse de Lamartine (1790-1869). Most politicians underestimated him and were confident they could replace him in the next election.

But the young Napoleon had other plans. In December 1851, he staged a military coup, arrested his political opponents, while others, like Victor Hugo (1802-1885), fled into exile. After a few days of street fighting, Louis-Napoléon managed to stabilize his rule. A year later, he proclaimed himself Emperor Napoleon III. The Second Empire had begun.

Episodes on this period

The first episode is, of course, entirely about the French Revolution:

The second episode covers the “Spring of Nations,” during which the monarchy was removed from France, this time for good:

Recommended films about this era

The first film I recommend is “Farewell, My Queen,” which covers the earliest days of the French Revolution as experienced at the royal court in Versailles.

The second film I highly recommend is “La Nuit de Varennes,” which covers the king’s failed escape attempt, starring the great Marcello Mastroianni as an aging Casanova.

And finally, no discussion of the French Revolution would be complete without mentioning Charles Dickens’s (1812-1870) immortal novel, “A Tale of Two Cities,” which has been adapted for the screen more than once:

Many films have also been made about Napoleon. My personal favorite is a 2002 production starring, among others, John Malkovich, Isabella Rossellini and Gérard Depardieu:

And speaking of Gérard Depardieu, if you’d like to learn about the Restoration period (1814-1830), I recommend watching “The Count of Monte Cristo,” based on the immortal novel by Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870), starring him:

And finally, to learn about Louis-Philippe’s reign, I recommend watching one of the film adaptations of Victor Hugo’s novel, “Les Misérables”:

Want to read more about the history of Paris?

Feel free to move on to the next chapter in the history of Paris series and learn about further periods in the story of the City of Light.

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