a tourist guide to Paris during the French revolution with Ten Walking Tours through the Neighbourhoods and Sites of Paris from the Revolution

Kelley, Jan | Paperback / softback | 16-06-2012 | 9789076542300

Step into the revolution that changed the world

‘It took all the daring of an English author to embark on writing a guide that transports the walker back in time to the Paris of the French Revolution. Her book illuminates this difficult and complex period, one that opened the door to a shining age of liberty.’ – Frédéric Lacaille, Curator, Musée National des Chateaux de Versailles et Trianon

You don’t need to know anything about the French Revolution to enjoy Path of the Patriots, because this historical time-trip tells you everything! You’ll see squatters in the Louvre, revolutionary committees in royal bedrooms, savage massacres and beheadings where Parisians now sit eating their sandwiches, and a revolutionary prison right in the middle of Boulevard Saint-Germain. Path of the Patriots is a goldmine of tales and anecdotes about this turbulent period in Paris’s history, and it tells you where to eat and drink while reading them. This book is so full of fascinating stories, you’ll enjoy it just as much sitting at home with a glass of wine as you will when you’re wandering around the beautiful French capital. You’ll never look at Paris in the same way again!

Path of the Patriots comes in two volumes, and has a total of ten walks. The first four walks are in Volume One, which also gives you an introduction to the Revolution through a brief history of what happened, biographies of the people who made it happen, and a description of what the city of Paris looked like during the revolutionary era. In Volume Two there are six more walks that will complete this unique experience of Paris during one of its most dramatic periods of history. Whichever of these two volumes you read, get ready to step into the Revolution that changed the world!

About the Author
Jan Kelley is from London, but has spent much of her adult life in other places, including New York, Boston and Paris. Her professional life has been equally varied, ranging from teacher to translator and writer. A life-long love of history coupled with living in the ancient heart of Paris led her to write this book.

Path of the Patriots, Volume One: ISBN 978 90 76542 508
Path of the Patriots, Volume Two: ISBN 978 90 76542 515

Also Available in E-Book Format
Path of the Patriots, Volume One: ISBN 978 90 76542 669
Path of the Patriots, Volume Two: ISBN 978 90 76542 713
Path of the Patriots, Two-Volume Set: ISBN 978 90 76542 720

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Take a historical time trip through the streets where it all happened, to where Parisians lived, worked, ate and drank, rose up in arms, and to where many ended their lives under the blade of the guillotine.

The two books contain ten walks, which take the reader around different neighbourhoods that were instrumental in the Revolution. Each walk gives the visitor a complete experience of the atmosphere of that area during this period by pointing out the people and revolutionary events associated with it. Also included are references to contemporary architecture, and some of the more colourful residents, as well as restaurants, brasseries and cafés with a revolutionary history. Each walk is full of stories and anecdotes, as well as illustrations, maps and detailed instructions. They reveal hidden treasures that will never be found in a typical tourist guide of Paris.

Path of the Patriots is not just about the unknown. It also takes you to many of the more famous sights of Paris, including the Louvre, the Tuileries, the Conciergerie, Notre-Dame, Place de la Concorde, the Pantheon, the Palais-Royal, as well as a complete walk through the town and château of Versailles. Now, however, you have a different view. The Pyramid is not just the new and elegant entrance to the Louvre. It stands on the site of a labyrinth of tiny streets where rebellious citizens rose up against the King, and where the Queen got hopelessly lost while attempting to escape.

Every walk offers a different glimpse into the excitement, idealism, and terror that characterized this amazing period of history, be it following the path of the condemned to the guillotine along the rue Saint-Honoré with stores and cafés still standing today, or visiting the prison that held Josephine during the Terror and still has her graffiti on the walls. The storming of the Bastille comes to life before your eyes as you have a drink on a café terrace that now occupies the main courtyard of this famous prison.

For frequent visitors to Paris, this guide offers a unique way to look at the city. It gives an extra dimension to popular sites like the Tuileries by showing what used to be there (i.e. the Tuileries Palace, demolished in 1884) and what happened there. Many do not know that this is where Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette were first held in captivity, and where Robespierre compiled his dreaded list of suspects. Even fewer know that Thomas Jefferson attended musical concerts there, and only just escaped from being the first victim of the Revolution.

The Walks

1. Versailles – an Ending – and a Beginning
The Town of Versailles
Hôtel des Menus-Plaisirs
Salles du Jeu-de-Paume
The Château
The Museum
The Gardens
The Trianons

2. The Cradle of the Revolution
In and around the Palais-Royal and its garden.

3. Saints and Scholars in the Latin Quarter
Montagne-Sainte-Geneviève
Panthéon
Lycée Louis-le-Grand
Place Maubert
Saint-Séverin

4. Chez Les Cordeliers
Odéon
Saint-Germain
Luxembourg

5. From the Temple of Reason to the Temple Prison
Notre Dame
Hôtel-de-Ville
Danton’s first walk in Paris
Temple

6. Ghosts in the Place du Carrousel
The Louvre
Place du Carrousel
The Tuileries

7. The Route of the Condemned I -Their last look at the City
Palais de Justice
Sainte-Chapelle
Conciergerie
Pont Neuf
Rue Saint-Honoré
Place du Palais-Royal

8. The Route of the Condemned II -The Guillotine -and after
Rue Saint-Honoré
Place Vendôme
Place de la Concorde
Chapelle Expiatoire
Parc Monceau

9. Sans-Culottes, the Terror, and a Path of False Hope
Rue Saint-Antoine
Place de Vosges
Bastille
Faubourg Saint-Antoine
Dr Belhomme’s Clinic
Place de la Nation
Picpus Cemetery

10. Power and Glory
Faubourg Saint-Germain
Invalides
Ecole-Militaire
Champ-de-Mars