today we visited Carnavalet, or the museum of Paris. this museum holds some of the history of this great city, especially about the revolution. in here i learned that some of the big revolutionaries, such as Robespierre, were held up in the Bastille and were trying to get everyone to sign a petition. well, everyone except Robespierre had signed the paper when the guards attacked the Bastille.
as the battle raged on, one of the revolutionaries committed suicide so he wouldn't be caught; another threw himself out of a window in a suicide attempt but, unfortunately, he survived( although he did hit the pavement hard enough to knock out his eye, and he was eventually executed with his eye hanging out of its socket) and Robespierre showed up with a gunshot wound to the mouth. no one knows if he gave himself the wound in a suicide attempt, or if one of the guards shot him.
Robespierre was captured, along with the man who threw himself out the window and a few others, and they were sent to prison to await their death. in jail, they taped up Robespierre's jaw in order to keep him alive until his execution, and its said that when it was Robespierre's turn for the guillotine, the executioner, in a fit of cruelty, ripped off the tape that held Robespierre's shattered jaw together right before executing him.
afterward, we went to the Musee De OrSay; a museum that housed many famous works by Monet, Van Gogh, and many other impressionistic artists. i discovered while i was walking among so many priceless paintings, that i really wish i could draw.....
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