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Journey Through Time: Heads You Lose - France 1790’s
Inventions of the Time
The guillotine is invented as a result of the 1789 revolution. Also known as ‘the
Terror’- it was considered a more humane method of execution than the axe
which was often blunt and required more than one decent chop.
30,000 people were to be executed using the device
during the French Revolution including a large number of the nobility and including
Louis XVI himself.
Food of the time
A menu for the rich
| Dish |
Layman’s translation |
Actual translation |
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| Entrée |
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Soupe de Poissons
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Soup with poison in it |
Fish soup |
| Oeufs en Cocotte |
Big Hairy Oafs on coconuts |
Eggs in Cream and Butter |
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| Main Course |
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| Salade frisee aux lardons |
Frizy salad with tons of
lard piled on top |
Endive salad with diced fried bacon |
| Escargots |
This car goes (Citreon) |
Snails |
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| Side Orders |
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| Les Pommes |
Englishmen - boiled, mashed or
in their jackets |
Potatoes |
| Les Frites |
Fried Germans |
Chips |
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| Desert |
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| Pains au chocolat |
Stomach cramps through too
much chocolate |
Chocolate croissant like rolls |
| Ile Flottante |
Floating dead eel |
Meringues floating in creamy custard sauce |
Peasants eat very little. Escargots if one is lucky enough
to see an unlikely snail ferreting around the slum, minding its own business looking
for the odd leaf or two to chew on.
Frogs legs –only for rural peasants -tend to be a
bit chewy and tricky to catch – definitely easier to catch once the legs
have been removed. Unfortunately neither is exactly a three-course meal. The menu
is more likely to be bread and unhygienic water.
One report has it that while the peasants starved, a close
friend of Louis XVI regularly bathed in a bathtub of strawberries. Jam anybody?
No wonder the peasants decided to have a revolution.
Fashion of the Time
Before the revolution to be called a ‘sans culotte’ – a man without
breeches - was considered an insult. During the revolution men began to think
it was quite an honour and started saying to themselves "Yes we have no breeches
but we’re proud of what we’ve got. Breeches are the rich man’s
trouser - A man should be entitled to wear the trouser of his choice and if he
doesn’t want to wear any at all – so be it."
Thankfully the men did decide to wear some trousers –
they weren’t quite that proud. Once they all revolted, instead of wearing
breeches, they wore simple trousers held up by braces and short jackets called
carmagnoles. They also wore scarves around their necks and, of course:
LIBERTY CAPS – little red caps which can be craftily
recreated by putting a Manchester United football sock or set of red pantyhose
on your head. (Actually the sock may be more successful, with the pantyhose on
you may be more likely to look like a sunburnt version of Mickey Mouse). Anyway
these hats were the symbol of the revolution.
Women also became "Sans culotte’ –breeches-less
and instead they wore skirts. Wearing both would certainly be bothersome and time
consuming in the mornings.
Sans culottes dropped all polite behaviour – they
were rebels with a cause and were pretty ferocious. If a member of the aristocracy
was walking down the street it is quite likely that he would quake in his boots.
He may furtively remove his breeches so that he could say, " You will see
that I have no breeches. I have nothing to hide. Viva la France."
Other favourite sayings of the time
"Freedom, Equality, Fraternity"
"Long live the revolution"
"Off with their heads"
"Drop your daks, put on your hats"
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