Eugène de Beauharnais

Eugène Rose de Beauharnais was a French statesman and military officer who served in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Through the second marriage of his mother, Joséphine de Beauharnais, he was the stepson of Napoleon Bonaparte. Under the French Empire, he also became Napoleon's adopted son. Consequently, he signed his name "Eugène Napoléon".

Commoners often went barefoot and wore secondhand

Ordinary rural people in France often went barefoot during the warmer seasons and relied heavily on secondhand clothing, as buying new outfits was exceptional.

Sans-culottes wore trousers as a badge of honor

During the French Revolution, working-class men known as sans-culottes distinguished themselves by wearing long trousers instead of the tight knee breeches worn by the nobility.

Popular dances included minuet and contredanse

The minuet and the contredanse were the two most popular dances, with the latter being a favorite figure dance involving four couples. People frequently organized and enjoyed balls in the provinces during this period.

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.

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.

Fast winter mountain descent by sled

Adventurous travelers crossing the Alps at Mont-Cenis in winter could descend into France on a sled in a 15-minute thrill ride called the ramasse. The sleds were guided by a conductor who steered the craft down the snowy slopes at high speed.

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.

Simple peasant housing

Most peasant homes were single-room structures built of mud with thatched roofs, lacking ceilings and window glass.

Bread Was the Staff of Life

In 1775, a French laboring family of four typically consumed 1.2 tons of grain per year, with urban workers spending half their salary on bread.

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.

Meat as a luxury item

Meat was considered a luxury product for workers; a master worker could afford 300 grams of meat per day, while in 1771 some bourgeois complained of meat prices rising to 12, 14, or 15 sous per pound.

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.

Common jobs in 18th-century France

Most ordinary people worked in manual agriculture or as urban day-laborers, while others labored in domestic industries like weaving and spinning. In cities, workers were often employed in construction, shipbuilding, or as unskilled laborers in factories and workshops.

The reality of the daily workday

The workday typically began at sunrise and could last up to 14 hours in summer, though it was often shorter in winter. Workers frequently had only two meals a day, with a common breakfast consisting of coffee with milk bought from street vendors for two sous.