Paris Parks: Poisons, Devils, and Duels: Historical Journeys through the City of Light

The first humans to leave the Earth launched from a Paris garden, and conversely, the first human to parachute back to Earth landed in a Paris park. For two millennia, the parks and gardens of Paris have hosted history-making events, beginning with the Roman occupation of Gaul, through the rule of the Bourbons, the French Revolution, two devastating World Wars, and the Paris of the twenty-first century. Stand at the tip of the Square du Vert Galant, look down the Seine, and imagine yourself in the year 885 as the warrior-bishop Goslin watched in terror 300 Viking long ships approaching to devastate Paris. Hear the “call to arms” on a Sunday afternoon in July of 1789 by Camille Demoulons who symbolically launched the French Revolution in the gardens of the Palais Royal. His impassioned speech would change the course of western civilization. Learn how starving Parisians during the siege of Paris in 1871 invaded the Jardin des Plantes where they killed and ate Castor and Pollux, the zoo’s two elephants. Discover how the Duke de Richelieu, ladies-man extraordinaire, accidentally scheduled a clandestine meeting with his two mistresses at the same time and place. Tempers flared, the two paramours fought a duel in the Bois du Boulogne, but who lived to tell her tale? Did you know that Robert Fulton first tested his steamboat in the River Seine alongside the Tuileries Garden? During the First World War the Taxicab Army of the French was assembled on the esplanade of the Invalides, and the alleged German spy Mata Hari was executed by firing squad in the Bois de Vincennes. Paris Parks: Poisons, Devils, and Duels looks at Paris through a unique lens its parks and gardens, giving voice to these mute places by revealing their compelling stories.