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Important Request: if anyone in the general Paris area has seen a large black dog wandering unattended somewhere in the vicinity of Rue Saint-Honoré, please inform us. The dog in question poses no danger and is in fact quite well trained, but its prompt return is necessary for, let's just say, the capability and capacity of one of our important representatives.

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The Committee of Public Safety is a governmental body that deals with matters pertaining to national safety, foreign threats, and administrative duties, based in Paris and under the supervision of the National Convention.

Any questions, topics of interest, or other commentary can be sent in using the Inquiries button. If you require a notice posted, use the Notices button. Remember, by submitting material you are opening yourself to any applicable legal action that such statements could bring you.

If you wish to bring up a topic or dispute surrounding trials, court procedures, or sentencing, please take this matter to the Revolutionary Tribunal. Remember, we are not the ones who decide who gets guillotined!

If you need to report counterrevolutionary propaganda, travel law violations, or falsified papers/passports, please take these matters to the Committee of General Security. If they blow you off (usually saying something along the lines of "let Public Safety deal with it if they're so high and mighty" and/or grumbling about "indirect appointments"), feel free to bring it up in your local section/club meeting and proceed by their advice.

(Please refrain from asking about the "shouts and crashing noises, like things are being thrown" coming from inside our meeting location. It's nothing to worry about. We're dealing with it. We got everybody involved away from the window, it's all under control.)

OOC:

this is an intentionally humorous blog, in the style of other corporate/organization gimmick blogs. historical events that were serious/influential may be discussed flippantly as part of the bit. specific events referenced in posts may or may not have actually occurred in real life as described in the post. if you are unsure whether or not a post is about an actual event, are curious about what it is referencing, or just want to chat french revolution, feel free to hmu at my main @transrevolutions.

there's no fixed timeline for this blog. events and people may be referenced out of order. just don't think too hard about it.

I doubt this needs to be said, but just in case: neither I nor this blog are actually affiliated with the french government. the committee of public safety was disbanded in 1795. as such, any references to legality/arrest warrants/surveillance are tongue-in-cheek.

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this is what goes on in the clubs

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The bride and the rat man

I'm so sorry Marat I don't mean it yes i do

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why does everyone on frevblr call Robespierre 'Maxime'. that's not your friend that's a 200 year old dead man. it's Maximilien François Marie Isidore to YOU

#To be fair i only do it when talking about him and augustin and charlotte #To differentiate and all #But also #If he doesn't wanna be called maxime he's more than welcome to do a ghost aparition thingie and tell me off in french #I won't understand a thing but I'll get the message

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Saint-Just with his flute. Art was commissioned by me from @michel-feuilly !

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Can someone pretty please draw King Louis VXI (6’1) holding Robespierre (5’3) by the underarms like people do with cats?? I HAVE BEEN THINKING ABOUT THIS FOR SOOO LONG BECAUSE OF THEIR HEIGHT DIFFERENCE AND I JUST THOUGHT IT WOULD BE REALLY FUNNY 😭

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Thinkin about society n stuff; maybe write an essay later idk

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Frev locations compile

Thought of compiling a list of frev significant locations so it can help with recommendations for anyone who happens to be travelling/visiting! This is only done to my knowledge and not a complete list, please feel free to suggest if you happen to know more locations that I completely missed!

so here is the frev pilgrimage list! Long post warning.

(Note: The items are not in any particular order)

(Note: I typed this post up a long time ago but couldn't finish, a lot of thanks to the people who helped out on contributing information and your patience with me.)

Musée Carnavalet (Paris)

This one is very obvious, it is a must go for seeing a collection of frev related artifacts and paintings, including Couthon’s wheelchair, Robespierre’s hair, the most iconic portraits etc. Also its FREE.

Panthéon (Paris)

You can see the statue of the National Convention deputies. It doesnt have too much related to frev directly, but Rousseau and Voltaire (and Carnot…..) are interred there

La Conciergerie (Paris)

If you want to see the Deseine bust of Robespierre, but cant go to Vizille, there is a copy of it here within Paris at the conciergerie. It is the place where most frev figures as well as Antoinette spent their last monents.

Musée des archives nationales (Paris)

(June 2023) There is a temporary exhibit featuring frev rn which I highly recommend (also its free to go so like GO)

But beyond the temporary exhibit, I believe there are still a few things in permanent collection (Robespierre’s note book page, Antoinette’s last letter in prison, Comte d’Artois’ letter etc), including the famous 9 thermidor table that Robespierre supposedly lied on. the museum is free to visit.

Père la Chaise (Paris)

@robespapier wrote a better post on navigating the cemetery. It helped me so much with finding the graves of Lebas, Elisabeth and Eleonore Duplay! Thank you so much for the guide!

Rue Saint Honoré (Paris)

the current address of the Duplays household is 398 rue saint-honoré, which is now next to a louboutin store…. There is a commemorative plaque there indicating Robespierre’s residence there. Im not sure about going inside the residence….There was construction when I visited and the door was open, heres how it looks on the inside.

SJ’s bust (Paris & Angers)

I have not visited either of the two locations yet, but you can find that white bust of Saint-Just (that seemed to be modelled after the pastel portrait in the Carnavalet) in either Petit Palais (Paris) or Galerie David d’Angers (Angers). @orpheusmori has posted some Petit Palais pictures here @robespapier has posted some Galerie David d'Angers pictures here

Marat sign (Paris)

i have an image of this plaque sitting on my phone, I forgot where it was located until @orpheusmori helped me track the location of it! It is in the Odéon area and should be in the small narrow street with the back side of Le Procope. It commemorates the location as an important area during the French Revolution as well as the place where Marat established his printing shop.

The front of the same building also has another Marat plaque! I didnt know about it before thank you @orpheusmori for finding and contributing the photo! This one is above an Jewellery store (Amour de Pierres) https://maps.app.goo.gl/8X9zgKYpMiLJcULq7

Olympe de Gouges sign (Paris)

Once again, i have a photo of the plaque proving its existence, but I took it years ago and i dont remember where it was exactly.... It was all in the Odéon area, it shouldn’t be too far from the other….

Danton statue (Paris)

there is a Danton statue! Right outside the Odéon metro! You cant miss it. Also the placement of the statue is where he once lived.

Procope (Paris)

Its a really old cafe frequented by a lot of philosophes as well as many frev figures. There is also a bicorn from Napoleon inside. Right now its still a restaurant establishment, and its difficult to visit unless you eat inside….which is expensive…. However ! This whole general Odéon area is full of other frev landmarks (some more mentioned below). Including the metro station which has a bust of Danton.

Versailles revolutionary room (Versailles)

Beyond the royal family, there is a room dedicated to a lot of major Revolutionary Army generals and battles. Theres that one painting of Lafayette if u into that

Musée des armes/Invalides (Paris)

It has a significant collection of military artefacts from the French Revolution and its a really good resource for armory researches. The museum also has a sword that belonged to Lafayette, as well as a sword belonging to Carnot during the Directoire (image below)

Louvre

The Louvre does not have a lot relating to the French Revolution but it has a few significant paintings and a lot of David’s work. One of the Death of Marat copies produced by David’s studio should be in the museum, as well as a painting featuring the battke of fleurus (with SJ cameo)

Tennis court (Versailles)

Near the palace of Versailles you can find the room where the deputies swore the famous oaths. It is free to enter, although last time I went it was undergoing construction, hopefully it should have finished by now.

Musée de la Révolution Française (Vizille)

If you can go to Vizille… GO TO VIZILLE! The easiest way by transport would be to stay at Grenoble then take one of the buses that runs between Grenoble and Vizille. It is a whole museum dedicated to the revolution (and it is free) and the park is really pretty. This is where you can find the statue of Marat,

The Deseine busts including dear Bonbon,

And DJ Saint-Just.

Also special thank you to @citizentaleo for taking me there, I would’ve otherwise been lost in the French mountains lol, thank you!

Maison Robespierre (Arras)

You can visit Robespierre’s residence in Arras. It is possible to visit the inside, but it has a very specific and short opening hours.

I wasn’t able to go in since I was only in Arras for a few hours….But I got to attend a conference by Hervé Leuwers aaa (He is very sweet and I learned quite few new things from the presentation, but thats post for another day)

Robespierre metro stop (Paris suburb)

There is in fact, a Robespierre metro station on line 9! Not much beyond name but at least some credit to him! Alas it is not exactly within Paris and just on the outskirt. (Oh and there is also Voltaire)

Cordeliers club (Paris)

I dont have much information on what happened to the original location of the Cordeliers club and how it was modified, but the location is part of the sorbonne campus now i believe. I'd be very curious if anyone knows more information on this.

Place de la Bastille (Paris)

The Bastille is of course not there anymore, but the ground around the square and including the metro stations near by have traces/marks of where the old prison would have stood.

(and yea the picture was taken during a manif)

Pavillon de flore (Paris)

The pavillon attached to the Louvre and next to the Pont Royale is the Pavillon de Flore, which is where the Committee de Salut Publique worked.

Jacobin club (Paris) Alas the original convent in which the Jacobin gathered is no more and replaced by a commercial centre instead (Passage de Jacobins) . There is a sign however recognizing the place for what it was.

Place de la Concorde (Paris) Originally Place de la Révolution, there is a plaque remembering the executions that took place here near the obelisk.

Maison SJ (Blérancourt) I have not been to Saint-Just's house yet, because it is very hard to commute there without a car. But it certainly is still there and (I believe) maintained by the Saint-Just Association.

Catacombs (Paris) According to wikipedia....The bone remains of many revolutionaries buried in Cimitière Errancis (which has a plaque indicating it in the 8th arrondissement, according to wikipedia) are transferred to the catacombs, including Robespierre, Danton, etc. The catacomb is roughly organized chronologically but there is obviously no sign indicating which bone it actually is.

Cluny La Sorbonne station (Paris) It is on metro line 10 and the waiting tunnel is decorated with signatures of prominent French figures. It doesn't have any actual frev artifacts, but it looks cool and you can spot Robespierre, Danton, and Camille Desmoulins' signatures on the ceiling.

Louis le Grand (Paris) The school that Robespierre attended is still under the same name and still in use as a school! (i've reached the image maximum alas i cannot add more images...)

And that is all I can think of so far! There is surely a lot more that are out there (including outside of France). Once again, please feel free to mention if you know more frev landmarks that I missed out on. And to whoever happens to be travelling I hope you find this list helpful to start with.

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8 14 18 for history asks?

Ok, so, don’t mind me, I’m just gonna reply to these questions not in order! Because I say so.

14. Why you are interested in history ( a silly question, eh?) ?

Alright, so. Jesker Lore™ time. My mom’s a historian, specifically, she studied mostly Ancient Mesopotamia (the Acadians are sus chicos. She’s obsessed with them, and a few other details I’m not going to mention because I low key fear accidentally translating a term wrong or misremembering something and her spirit coming over to hit me with a rolled up newspaper.). So I grew up with her telling me stories and helping me with my history homework. I don’t really remember history classes, except for the last few years of my life, in my head it’s always mom explaining me why things happened the way they did. When one day I started rambling about frenchmen and guillotines, she instantly started forwarding me articles and eventually started getting me books from her second hand bookstore (which is one of the reasons why I have… let me count… 36 books? On Frev? More or less.) So we can blame her for why I’m like this about Marat and Simonne Evrard.

And my interest of Spanish history is born more on my need to understand why my family ended the way it did and a bunch of other unrelated stuff that are way too personal.

8. What is the last thing you have read/ listened/ spoke with historical reference?

If Tumblr doesn’t count (which I don’t count it as), I have been reading on art history lately, because of my delusions of making it into art school next year. The book I was reading was an inherited one, and I planed to only read that one and then delve into what interested me most. But then I saw that the Mesopotamian art was only granted a page and a bit of content, and I just. Nope. That is insulting both to my mother and the Mesopotamians. So I asked mom for some extra material and now I’m reading about the topic! I’m a very slow reader though.

18. Look at the clock and assume the numbers are forming historical year ( 17;58 would be 1758) What was / is / will be the world that year? Any event happened then or will happen?

As of writing this, it’s 16:06. … Well I have no idea what the fuck was going on France then, it’s too early for my area of interest. As of Mesopotamia, it’s kinda, eh, no longer around? Spain, well, we have Felipe Tercero. We had a few Felipes in a row, so forgive me for having to check what the fuck this one did. I think the only thing he did in 1606 was change the placement of the court. And I don’t know if he expelled the moriscos before or after that. The Duque de Lerma was there fucking shit up as his valido. So yeah, not a lot of interesting stuff? We get a war just a bit later, but that isn’t interesting either, just depressing. At least it’s not Fernando Séptimo. Fuck that guy, god I hate him so muchhhhh.

#Is this rambly? Yes #but no one else asked me anything so #I deserve to ramble #as a treat #anyways shoutout to my last history teacher who stared at me oddly after I replied to every single French Revolution related question she a #and shoutout to my classmates who’d already heard me rambling about the frenchies enough to not raise their hands #and shoutout to my last English teacher who had to sit by and observe as I made every single project be somehow related to the frenchies #and to my literature teacher who allowed me to make an essay on how a fictional character of Spanish 20th century theatre was very similar #ok I’m done #probably #also yeah my surname’s jesker #enjoy that bit of lore #that’s all byeeeee

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speaking of underrated historical figures you know who never gets featured in frev stuff ever?? augustin robespierre. i swear you could watch all the most popular frev movies and not even know maximilien robespierre HAD a brother. much less that that brother was at least somewhat important. didnt even merit an ALLUSION in the new napoleon movie even though it showed that bizarre version of thermidor. in lrf he is just physically not present when he should be. he might not have been the most notable politician but... that even the incredible courage and loyalty of his decision to share his brother's fate is so forgotten even in accounts that center his brother... it's a little heartbreaking to me

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I have seen many questionnaires but none including history. What a shame..

1. Who is your favourite historical person?

2. What is your country most famous for in history?

3. What is your country most infamous for in history?

4. Favourite historical era?

5. Favourite weapon?

6. Military unit?

7. Historical dressing, uniform or costume?

8. What is the last thing you have read/ listened/ spoke with historical reference?

9. Favourite historical film?

10. Pieces of art ( paintings, sculpures, lithographies, ect.) related to history you like most ( post an image of them)

11. Have you participated in reenactment? What it was like?

12. Would you take part in reenactment? In what era and as whom?

13. Something random about some random historical person in a random era.

14. Why you are interested in history ( a silly question, eh?) ?

15. Were the history classes teached in an interesting way in your school/ college/ university? What would you do to improve them if you were the teacher / lecturer?

16. Do you own some historical item? ( coin, clothing, weapons, books, ect) If yes which one is your favourite?

17. What historical item would you like to own?

18. Look at the clock and assume the numbers are forming historical year ( 17;58 would be 1758) What was / is / will be the world that year? Any event happened then or will happen?

19. Favourite historical book?

20. History crush?

21. Historical game?

22. Random historical fact about the place you are at the moment.

23. Favourite historical song / with such reference?

24. Most underrated historical figure?

25. Most overrated historical figure in your opinion?

26. Forgotten hero we should know about and admire?

27. Favourite historical “ What if… ” ?

28. Favourite “dream team” of specific era or the entire history?

29. Great historical mystery you are interested in?

30. Ask me a question of your own.

Send me the numbers of the questions you wish to be answered in my “Ask”.

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erm what the sigma

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When you get publicly slapped by 4 surrealist poets because you insulted a guy's historical crush

(translation and context under the cut)

Gallantly Defending Robespierre’s Honour

In the conservative daily paper, Le Gaulois, on March 3, 1923, the journalist and man of letters, Wieland Mayr, expressed his pleasure: there would not be, he wrote, a "vile apotheosis" for "that holy scoundrel" Robespierre. On the other hand, Mathiez had the Surrealists with him. Following the article in Le Gaulois, Robert Desnos (1), accompanied by Paul Éluard (2), Max Ernst (3), and André Breton (4), summoned Mayr in a café and publicly slapped him for insulting the memory of "the Incorruptible."

Why did Mayr get Slapped?

In short: studying history in the 1920s was a messy business, especially when it came to the French Revolution….

To explain why Mayr ended up getting slapped, please allow me to briefly dive into the French Revolution's historiography during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Keep in mind, that this is a grossly oversimplified version.

Before 1848, it was pretty standard for French republicans to proudly see themselves as inheritors of Robespierre’s legacy. (If you’ve ever wondered why in Les Misérables, Enjolras’ character is very much channeling Robespierre and Saint Just, here’s your answer!) However, things start to change with the Second Republic.

In 1847, Jules Michelet brought back the negative portrayal of Robespierre as a tyrannical "priest" and leader of a new cult. This narrative helped fuel an increasing dislike for Robespierre, with radicals like Auguste Blanqui arguing that the real revolutionaries were the atheistic Hébertists, not the Robespierrists.

Jump to the Third Republic, and the negative sentiment towards Robespierre was only getting stronger, driven by voices like Hippolyte Taine, who painted Robespierre as a mediocre figure, overwhelmed by his role. This trend was politically motivated, aiming to reshape the Revolution's legacy to align with the Third Republic's secular values. Obviously, Robespierre, the "fanatic pontiff" of the Supreme Being, didn’t quite fit this revised narrative and was made out to be the villain. Alphonse Aulard (a historian willing to stretch the truth to make his point) continued pushing Danton as the face of secular republicanism. Albert Mathiez, one of Aulard’s students, was not having any of it and strongly disagreed with his mentor’s approach.

The general disdain for Robespierre began to shift after World War I. One reason was that people could better appreciate the actions of the Revolutionary Government after experiencing the repression during the war themselves. Albert Mathiez and his colleagues were actively working to change Robespierre's tarnished image. With tensions high, it's no wonder Mayr ended up being publicly slapped by a bunch of poets who were defending the Incorruptible's honour!

Notes

Robert Desnos (1900-1945) was a French poet deeply associated with the Surrealist movement, known for his revolutionary contributions to both poetry and resistance during World War II.

Paul Éluard (1895-1952) was a French poet and one of the founding members of the Surrealist movement, celebrated for his lyrical and passionate writings on love and liberty.

Max Ernst (1891-1976) was a German painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and poet, a pioneering figure in the Dada and Surrealist movements known for his inventive use of collage and exploration of the unconscious.

André Breton (1896-1966) was a French writer, poet, and anti-fascist, best known as the principal founder and leading theorist of Surrealism, promoting the liberation of the human mind.

Source: Robespierre and the Social Republic by Albert Mathiez

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everything that i learnt about the french revolution was against my will.

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For @xiorc-0714 ! Sorry that the ask box was acting weird

The request was modern Rock AU Saintmoulins

also we brainstormed that Robespierre would be the manager in the AU

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I changed my art style