Comte Gabriel de Geslin

What people wore

Post-Revolution women wore thin, simple gowns

Following the Reign of Terror, fashionable Parisian women adopted simple, transparent flowing gowns with high waistlines and heelless slippers, sometimes causing illness due to the cold.

Getting around

Dangerous conditions on poorly maintained roads

Travelers in carriages sometimes had to pay local peasants to walk alongside and support the carriage to prevent it from tipping over on flooded or muddy roads. In severe weather, travelers were occasionally forced to wait for days in miserable inns until conditions improved.

At the table

Typical Peasant Diet in Rural France

Ordinary rural diets consisted of rye or oat bread, vegetable soups, and dairy, while meat was rarely eaten except for occasional pork.

Music

Wind instruments dominated outdoor civic festivals

Wind instruments, especially the bassoon-serpent, were highly prized for outdoor festivities and civic celebrations because they were loud enough to be heard by large crowds. During the Revolution, the government promoted powerful patriotic hymns like La Marseillaise, often played by wind ensembles to help mobilize and unify citizens.

Daily life

Limited rural schooling

In many rural areas, primary education was inconsistently provided by the local priest or his vicar, focusing only on basic reading, writing, and catechism.

What it cost

The high cost of footwear

Heavy taxes on leather made shoes very expensive, often forcing poor peasants to own only one pair for their entire lives or rely on wooden shoes. A pair of wooden shoes cost 9 sous 6 deniers in the countryside in 1790.