The Bastille

By Thirza Vallois

Paris Kiosque - July 1998 - Volume 5, Number 7
Copyright (c) 1998 Thirza Vallois - used with permission
Excerpted from "Around and About Paris"

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With Bastille Day (14 July) looming in the horizon, you may wish to go for a saunter into the 11th arrondissement, where it all began. The Bastille actually stood on the other side of Place de la Bastille, on the edge of today's 4th arrondissement, and its story is quite different from the one that history books like to tell school children!

By the time it was stormed, however, the Bastille had long ceased to conform to its image of merciless brutality. In fact, in the 17th century and especially in the 18th it had become a sort of luxury prison, often used for members of the aristocracy sent here, with a sealed letter from the King, for a period not exceeding a few months. Thus, when the Man in the Iron Mask was brought here, since no one could see his face, rumour had it that he was the twin brother of Louis XIV!

Within reasonable limits the prisoners could maintain their previous lifestyle, bringing over their own furniture and servants, entertaining visitors and even keeping amorous rendezvous. Voltaire used this time to complete his play Oedipe; the Marquis de Sade draped his cell walls and brought over his own wine from Provence; while the Cardinal de Rohan once hosted a lavish dinner party of 20 guests. Althought this lifestyle was financed by the prisoners' families, the upkeep of the Bastille was a costly business, owing to the high fees paid to its highly qualified staff of doctors, priests, chemists and surgeons, not to mention the highly paid governor. When Voltaire was released in 1717, the Regent granted him a reference to the food received at His Highness's expense, but suggested that in future he need not trouble to provide him with lodgings!

In order to cut down on state expenditure the Minister of Finance, Necker, had shut down the prison of Vincennes in 1784 and was planning likewise to demolish the Bastille. A square named Place Louis XVI was to replace it, but one battered tower of the fortress of theprison was to be preserved as historical testimony. A statue of Louis XVI stretching out a liberating hand in the direction of the demolished gaol was to surmount a pyramid made up of chains, bars, and locks retrieved from the Bastille. But the patriotic sans-culottes got there first. Their heroic assault against tyranny and the deliverance of the victims of oppression turned out to be much less glorious than the uplifting myth history has since created, for all they found in the Bastille were seven prisoners: four forgers, once accomplice to attempted murder, who had been locked up in the Bastille for over 30 years, a count who had committed incest and was sent there at his family's request with a sealed letter, and one feeble-minded wretch, also kept there at the request of the family, whom the liberating forces transferred to the celebrated asylum at Charenton. An eighth prisoner had been sent to Charenton ten days earlier - the notorious Marquis de Sade, who had been transferred from Vincennes when it was demolished in 1784. He too had been arrested at the request of his family, anxious to remove a cumbersome relative whose sexual perversion was not limited to the written world. It was in Vincennes that he wrote Justine and Gomorrah. In June 1789 the governor stopped the prisoners' daily walks on the towers because of the growing unrest in the neighbourhood. This enraged the Marquis who made himself a sort of megaphone and yelled through it that the prisoners were being slaughtered inside. On 3 July 1789 he created such a commotion that he had to be removed from the sight of the restless crowds and at 1 in the morning he was transferred to the prison section of Charenton. When that prison was closed down in 1803, he was locked up in the asylum of `licentious dementia'.

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Thirza Vallois brings Paris to life in a way that enthralls her readers and provides them with a detailed knowledge of the city which exceeds that of most Parisians, while her fast moving style disguises a depth of historical fact that is normally only found in academic tomes. Writer William Boyd wrote in The Spectator: "I think we can safely toss all other Paris guidebooks aside....There can be no higher praise than when I say they come close to the world's greatest guidebook, J. Link's "Venice for Pleasure" and they should soon achieve similar legendary status." The French Ambassador to the UK wrote: "I am convinced that this guide will constitute from now on, for the British lovers of Paris, a reference book which will have the success it deserves." Around and About Paris may be ordered here.

A long time resident of Paris, she currently lives just three hours outside of Paris in London, and may be contacted via thirzavallois@iliadbooks.demon.co.uk.