Musee Carnavalet and Conciergerie- La Revolution Francaise

It was the revolution that would come to inspire countless others in just about every corner of the globe. After the commoners realized that those in power were not willing to concede their positions, they decided to overthrow the Ancien Regime, beginning with the Storming of the Bastille, which was more symbolic than anything as there were very few political prisoners on July 14th, 1789. The concentration of power into the hands of the aristocracy and the clergy permeated nearly every area of life in pre-Revolutionary France, including the Estates-General, where the clergy, the aristocracy, and the commoners each received a vote, clearly stacking the odds against the common people. The nobles tried to appease them by allowing them twice as many representatives, but this was a hollow offer, as the number of votes did not change.

Thus the Revolutionaries began to create their new order. The Conciergerie, on Ile de la Cite, was their main prison, where Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI were held before losing their heads to the guillotine in Place de la Concorde. The building now has become a museum devoted to this, with the main attraction being a reconstruction of Marie Antoinette's prison cell. Original locks and weapons are also on display, but overall it was a bit of a disappointment. The cell reconstructions feel a bit Disneyland-like, complete with dummies, and most of the pictures and documents referred to in copies are actually on display at Musee Carnavalet. The completely random exhibit about Armenian history was interesting, as I know very little about the subject, but the only thing that particularly struck me about the Conciergerie was looking around and imagining it during Robespierre's Reign of Terror, filled with countless aristocrats (and other opponents of the Jacobins) soon to meet their end at the guillotine.

The Musee Carnavalet showed a less violent side of the French Revolution. The museum presents an approximately 500-year chronology of Parisian history, from the building's origin as a palace through the Revolution and beyond. The reconstructed manor rooms were similar to those in the Loire castles, so the exhibit about the Revolution was more interesting. Large copies of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen adorned one wall, with portraits of Robespierre and other leaders of the Revolution on others, alongside depictions of such events as the Storming of the Bastille. This exhibit is more favorable toward the Revolutionaries, though not without the occasional painting of a brutal execution. It was also interesting to see examples of the outlawed large signs once displayed by shops along Rue Mouffetard and other examples of 19th and 20th Century Parisian life.

On the Palais Justice, to which the Conciergerie is attached, is engraved the national motto that was born of the French Revolution: "Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité". Utilizing tenets of Social Contract Theory, the Revolutionaries forever changed the balance of power in France and inspired many a later revolution. These ideals were implemented, but it came at a violent price, and Revolutionary leaders were not immune to their own thirsts for power either. However, they planted those three words that define Western democratic ideals to this day.