Un provincial à Paris en juillet : extraits du Journal inédit de Nicolas Louet, avocat chaumontais

Nicolas Louet arrived in Paris from his native Chaumont on 11th July 1789 and lived through all the tumultuous events of that month. The originality of his diary, in which he describes all his experiences, lies in the fact that it portrays the effervescence of the period from day to day, in particular life in the street. Crowds gathered rapidly at the slightest alert — the third estate particularly around Palais Royal and the «fourth » at the place de Grève and the Hôtel de Ville — to read the wall posters and follow the latest rumours. We see the misery of the poorest, which led to the execution of speculators as well as officials on the «Grève », followed by popular processions brandishing the heads of the criminals.Guyard Michel. Un provincial à Paris en juillet : extraits du Journal inédit de Nicolas Louet, avocat chaumontais. In: Dix-huitième Siècle, n°20, 1988. L'année 1789. pp. 33-54