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Louis Claude Cadet de Gassicourt

Paris, 24 Jul 1731 – Paris, 17 Oct 1799

6 facts3 sources

Facts and their sources

  • Born24 Jul 1731, Parisnot verified1 source
  • Died17 Oct 1799, Parisnot verified1 source

A life in time

  1. 24 Jul 1731

    Born in Paris

  2. 23 Jan 1769

    A son is born

  3. 17 Oct 1799

    Dies in Paris, aged 68

Family

See the tree

Partner

Children · 1

During his lifetime

He lived through 7 decades. Pick one to hear and see what it was like around Paris.

General history, not a record about the family: each item says where it comes from.

The 1730s · Louis is born in Paris

In the news1738

Introduction of road labor corvee

In 1738, the crown introduced the corvee, a system of forced labor requiring peasants to build and maintain the royal roads.

At the table

Bread as the Foundation of Daily Meals

The staple of the ordinary diet was bread, often consumed as a soup by soaking pieces in water, broth, or vegetable mixtures. This meal structure, centered on a starchy base accompanied by secondary savory foods, remained remarkably stable for centuries.

What people wore

Carefully Patched Clothing

Respectable poor individuals often wore carefully patched cast-off clothing, where the patches were chosen to match the original faded fabric.

Getting around

Travel by mule

A trip between San Remo and Genoa over 90 miles could take three days on muleback due to narrow, rugged mountain paths.

What it cost

High cost of basic food

Meat was a luxury item; a single kilogram of beef, veal, or mutton could cost two days of labor for an ordinary worker. In 1725, due to shortages, the price of bread rose significantly, sometimes costing up to four days of work to afford a kilogram.

Music

Public concert series started in Paris

Starting in 1725, Parisians could attend public concerts organized by the Concert Spirituel society, which performed in the Tuileries Gardens when the Opéra was closed for religious festivals.

Daily life

Limited schooling for rural children

Many rural parishes lacked schools entirely, and for those that existed, instruction was often limited to basic reading, writing, and the catechism. It was common for the local parish priest to conduct classes, though schooling for girls was significantly rarer than for boys.