Imagine hearing a chilling tale of revolution and rage connected to this very ground. That is Rue Foulon.
Rue Foulon echoes with the fury of a populace pushed to its breaking point. It is a stark reminder of the French Revolution’s brutal realities.
Joseph-François Foulon de Doué, a name synonymous with greed and oppression, met his end here. He was Controller-General of Finances under Louis XVI.
Foulon was deeply unpopular. Parisians resented his wealth and viewed it as exploitation of the poor. A rumor said that he suggested starving people eat grass.
In July 1789, as the Bastille fell, panic gripped the aristocracy. Foulon, fearing the people’s wrath, staged his own funeral and fled.
But he was betrayed. The mob discovered his hiding place.
Captured, Foulon was dragged back to Paris. He was forced to walk barefoot. A bundle of hay was tied to his back. His face was wiped with nettles.
The Marquis de Lafayette tried to intervene. But the mob was uncontrollable. They dragged Foulon to the Place de Grève.
There, they hanged him from a lamp post. The rope broke three times. Enraged, the crowd beheaded him.
They paraded his head on a pike. His mouth was stuffed with grass. This gruesome display embodied the people’s hunger and their thirst for revenge.
Foulon’s son-in-law, Bertier de Sauvigny, also met a brutal end. He was confronted with his father-in-law’s head before being lynched.
The killings were so violent they shocked even revolutionaries. But some defended the actions. They asked: “What, then, is their blood so pure?”
Charles Dickens immortalized Foulon’s demise in A Tale of Two Cities. The event became a symbol of revolutionary fervor. Thomas Paine also discussed Foulon’s ordeal in Rights of Man.
The story of Rue Foulon serves as a chilling reminder. It shows the consequences of indifference to the suffering of others. It echoes the cries of a revolution.