Thursday, March 22, 2012

Reminiscences of the French Revolution with Cara

Cara - Bridge of "la Concorde"
10h01 - Cara comes from California (USA) where she has already run half marathons. Having seen recently the marathon of Rome, city where she lives, Cara now wishes to make a full marathon. The marathon of Rome? The marathon of Paris? Both? 

While running, we evoked the French Revolution. 
We crossed by important places of the Revolution such as Place de la Concorde, which saw the guillotine work very numerous times, and the bridge of the same name:
"So that the patriots may walk every day on the fragments of the execrable fortress!"the bridge of La Concorde was built by using stones of the Bastille. The prison of the Bastille, destroyed on July 14th, 1789, was effectively one of the symbols of the Monarchy.

Cara - Quai Voltaire


 
The ideas of the "Enlightenment" fed the Revolution. The philosopher Voltaire contributed to it widely. We crossed the building where he lived and died. He is situated Quai Voltaire, name given to the quay in 1791 in homage to the great man.

A little later, by pursuing our running, we stopped a small moment in front of the Café Procope, the oldest literary Café of the world, created in 1686.

Cara - Café Procope
 
In the 18th century, the Café participated in the birth of the "Enlightenment" ideas. Voltaire, Diderot, d'Alembert and Benjamin Franklin, in particular, frequented regularly the Café Procope. Benjamin Franklin would have partially prepared there the constitution of the United States. During the Revolution, Danton, Marat and Robespierre often met there. The young Napoleon Bonaparte even left one of his famous hats.

The Supper of the Philosophers - Voltaire, d'Alembert, Condorcet, Diderot, La Harpe, le père Adam and the abbot Maury  
Café Procope XVIIIth century


 
Nowadays, we can still see the Voltaire's table as well as one cocked hat of lieutenant Bonaparte.

Merci Cara !

The route of the tour:

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