French revolutions, hungry Parisians and the Père Lachaise

The social tensions in France, the gruelling police repression, the appalling racist atatck in Trappes, it is hard for me to think about anything else at the moment. Especially since my 16-year-old high-schooler son has been heavily involved in pacific protests since the movement started. The youth of France and beyond (Cockroach movement in India and many more) is phenomenal, their battle is legitimate, their approach is exhilarating yet governments and institutions are failing them pretty horribly. “Bismillah, c’est les ténèbres!” (Hell is upon us!).

17 October

On 17th October, a colossal strike took place in France, focusing mainly on the high cost of living and the lack of resources in the education sector. While the grand majority of the demonstrators rejoiced us with their peaceful and cheerful protests, the day was also sadly high-jacked by violent clashes and looting.

I was heading home after guiding a food tour in the Marais at 2 PM while police sirens were blasting away and huge very young crowds walked through rue de Rivoli protesting calmly, chanting away, on one of the many spontaneous actions happening all over town. I hopped on the metro but, as we neared République, the official departure site of the main demonstration, the metro driver asked us to evacuate. République square and metro station had been heavily tear gassed for hours by the authorities rather incomprehensibly, way ahead of the start time of the sanctioned protest. We ran the risk of suffocating if we continued.

Outside, at Arts et Métiers, there were thousands of people in utter confusion, no violence, no police either, some bins burning. Most were simply unable to join the demonstration as place de la République was in flames and the stage of violent confrontations between the police and “casseurs” (disruptors). Demonstrators took detours to join the main procession, some joined the spontaneous actions towards Hôtel de Ville instead, and others, like me, were simply trying to figure out how to get where we were headed. I walked against the crowd and managed to get in a metro before they all closed shortly after when the looting and mayhem spread from République to neighboring areas.

I got off at Voltaire and walked home through the Père Lachaise. The serene cemetery contrasted oddly with the unsettling sound of police dispersion grenades exploding every few seconds afar. I was texting frantically with my son and other family members who were in the main procession. They reassured me, the crowd was endless but peaceful.

The Fronde (1648-1653)

I stood at the top of the cemetery hill and looked out at my tormented city. This was the same spot where the young Louis XIV took refuge on 2 July 1652 during the civil war and observed the bloody clashes of the Battle of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine between the royalist army and the rebels. The war was a result of general discontent following years of heavy taxation (to finance the 30 year war) and repressive regime so some parallels can certainly be drawn with the current social tensions.

Episode of the Fronde at the Faubourg Saint-Antoine by the Walls of the Bastille (wikimedia commons).

The hill was thus named Mont Louis. Sometime later, Louis XIV gave the land to François d'Aix de La Chaise a prominent Jesuit priest who became his confessor. Though the official administrative name is le cimetière de l'Est parisien (the cemetery of the Parisian East), the popular name of Père Lachaise referring to this Jesuit priest took precedence over time.

Liberty leading the people

Links between the Père Lachaise and French revolutions don’t stop here. Eugène Delacroix painted the most iconic revolutionary painting Liberty leading the people and is buried there. He painted this work in 1830 to commemorate the Parisians’ uprising against King Charles X, who had threatened civil liberties (including freedom of the press) through authoritarian rulings.

Victor Noir’s grave

But there is more still… In 1870, the murder of journalist Victor Noir by Prince Pierre-Napoléon Bonaparte and his subsequent acquittal sparked widespread outrage. Over 100,000 people attended Noir's funeral procession, turning it into a major republican demonstration against Napoleon III's imperial repressive regime and establishing his grave at Père-Lachaise as a symbol of anti-establishment revolt. Ironically the grave is now better known for a superstitious belief, women touch the recumbent statue, or even straddle it (including celebrity Dita Von Teese), in the hope of becoming fertile.

Hungry Parisians

Shortly after, during the Prussia vs France war. The Prussian blockade severed supply lines during the winter of 1870. Parisians starved, forced to eat horses, street rats, and exotic animals from the Jardin des Plantes zoo to survive. Some cook books were even released then “How to cook under siege”. I love what this says about Parisians. Food is so important, they will eat antelope, fine, but with truffles, they will eat rats but with a mayonnaise, they are not savages. See the photo below of a Christmas menu served at Café Voisin on 25 December 1870 (wikimedia commons).

Paris Commune (March to May 1870)

Hungry not just for food but also social justice. Born from defeat to Prussia, siege hardship, and resistance against a conservative National Assembly, the 1871 Paris Commune established a 72-day experiment in social democracy rebelling against the imperial army. Many of the egalitarian rules we live by now were crystalized then (free education for all to name an important one).  It ended tragically during "Bloody Week" in May 1871, culminating in hand-to-hand combat at Père-Lachaise cemetery between the communards and the army. There, 147 surviving Communards were executed against the cemetery wall and buried in a mass grave, establishing the Wall of the Federates as a sanctuary for the labor movement.

Anarchy and resistance

Following the Commune massacre, Père-Lachaise Cemetery became a covert hub for anarchists, socialists, and trade unionists to honor the movement and meet away from police oversight. During World War II, the cemetery's catacombs and complex terrain served as hidden sanctuaries, weapons caches, and assembly points for the French Resistance against Nazi and Vichy forces.

In these troubled times, walking through the père Lachaise and reflecting on these revolutions, past and present, help me take a much-needed constructive distance from current suffocating events. Right next to Delacroix’s grave lays French historian Jules Michelet (1798-1874) who championed a populist vision of history, writing with romantic passion to present "the People" not merely as passive subjects, but as the true, collective hero driving France's democratic destiny. The Parisian humbler classes have always had a profound transformative role in French politics, fighting injustice over and over again in cycles.

In May 68, French students and unionists reshaped French society through massive waves of strikes. Now the protesters are even younger, almost children still, and show such courage despite state repression. They form an unavoidable tsunami. Our youth is our hero of the times, we should not lose track of that, but support and join them. Near Michelet is another grave, the great poet Apollinaire,who wrote "it is high time to rekindle the stars". That's what our youth seems to be doing. And in time, this too shall pass…