Sources for Revolutionary Sites in Contemporary Paris

[coloneldespard.livejournal.com]

Apologies if this has already been covered...I had a look and couldn't see it in the past posts. Does anyone have a book or website recommendations for Revolutionary sites still extant in Paris? Buildings, monuments etc? I'm visiting in June and staying at the Palais Royal, so will be geographically pretty close to revolutionary hotspots. My French is spotty but I can muddle by in reading (am learning at our Alliance Francaise centre in Sydney).

Most google searches I've done seem to turn up tours that are heavy on Marie-Antoinette and rather light on the Committee of Public Safety etc.

Comments

[jonahmama.livejournal.com]

There are two good books:
Paris au temps de la Revolution by Georges Poisson
Guide du Paris Revolutionnaire by Yves de Saint-Agnes

Both are obviously in French, but at least the maps and listings are easy to figure out.

If you start at the Musee Carnavalet in the Marais (itself full of great exhibits on the revolution), they used to carry both in their bookshop.

[coloneldespard.livejournal.com]

Many thanks for those recommendations! Sounds like precisely what I'm looking for, and I was planning on the Musée Carnavalet as an early stop - looks like I'll have to make it the first!

[10littlebullets.livejournal.com]

I second the recommendation for the Carnavalet bookshop. I cannot go in there anymore or I will walk out broke--they specialize in all the nooks and crannies of Parisian history that make me foam at the mouth with glee. And it's Carnavalet that did the "Paris in the time of Victor Hugo" exhibit. They know their shit, you can probably get book recommendations there, and I wouldn't be surprised if you ended up talking to somebody who could tell you places to go.

[coloneldespard.livejournal.com]

So I'm not going to be able to tempt you into popping in there with me :^) ? I do adore those quirkly little oddities - its been hard living back in Sydney when you're used to London and its long history. I threw myself into the local history of wherever I lived over in the UK. I'm looking forward to bemusing any Parisians who have the misfortune to run into me with my Australian accent, fumbling French, and passionate desire to see precisely where the Duplay house is.

[sibylla-oo.livejournal.com]

In the Conciergerie, you can buy good books and DVDs on the FR, both history and fiction.

[coloneldespard.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Loving the idea of coming home loaded with DVDs!