​Bonjour Reader!

It has been too long! My rentrée had a difficult re-entry but now I'm back in gear. Have you also been having a hard time adjusting to the post-summer experience?

What's New?

We have two new podcast episodes so far this fall: one on life at the Medieval Sorbonne University and a look at Six Facts About Napoleon's Tomb.

PGB also hit 500 podcast downloads! As of today, we're at 730. Can we hit a 1,000 by Halloween? I hope so! Thank you all for your support!

Also, quick housekeeping item: After some challenges with Buy Me a Coffee, you can now support me with a quick cuppa through Ko-fi instead. The PayPal payment option is back and I hope that overall the user experience is a better one. Please let me know if you have any comments or concerns about the service!

Research Gems

One of the big reasons I chose Parisian History as a (hopefully lucrative) passion project was that it basically gives me an excuse to research history. Which is one of my all-time favorite activities. And one of the best parts is that I get to discover all sort of random goodies along the way. They can't all be shoehorned into the regular content, but some of them I hate to let go to waste.

So today, here are some gems from the last two episodes to get you through the rest of the week!

Life As A Medieval Student

Incredibly, we have some extant letters still from medieval students. Doing things that students still do, like asking mom and dad for money. 😄

Here is a great example of one from Oxford in the 1220s (transcribed from this article):

B. to his venerable master A., greeting.

This is to inform you that I am studying at Oxford with the greatest diligence, but the matter of money stands greatly in the way of my promotion, as it is now two months since I spent the last of what you sent me. The city is expensive and makes many demands; I have to rent lodgings, buy necessaries, and provide for many other things which I cannot now specify.

Wherefore I respectfully beg your paternity that by the promptings of divine pity you may assist me, so that I may be able to complete what I have well begun. For you must know that without Ceres and Bacchus Apollo grows cold.

So, this young man is basically partying too hard. And he self-owns it with his sly references to beer with Ceres (the goddess of grain crops) and wine and partying with Bacchus. I would probably give him at least a little something for his allusory skills. Clearly the education is paying off!
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Napoleon the Author

This was so far removed from my mandate on the Tomb episode, I nearly forgot about it until I was reviewing my notes. Napoleon wasn't just a gifted military leader and successful politician (until it all went Russia-shaped), but also a prolific writer! How different the world would be if had he chosen the literary path instead of continental domination...

Bonaparte wrote a little bit of everything, from political pamphlets to his partial memoirs to, most surprisingly, romance novels! I mean romance novels in the late-18th/early-19th century style of dramatic novels, not our modern bodice-rippers. Though that would have been equally weird and entertaining!

Here's a sample of his novella Clisson and Eugénie. The hero of the story, Clisson, has taken leave from the army to grapple with his desire to do more than just be a soldier/killing machine. He retires to a friend's estate but finds the company a bit challenging:

"A man of his fervent imagination, with his blazing heart, his uncompromising intellect and his cool head, was bound to be irritated by the affected conversation of coquettes, the games of seduction, the logic of the tables and the hurling of witty insults. He could not see the point of scheming and did not appreciate wordplay."

[Excerpted from page 15 of the Hicks and Barthet translation, available from the PGB Boutique. All items purchased from the Boutique may earn me a commission from Amazon]

Clisson (and Napoleon) were not exactly social butterflies or into the casual flirtations of that period. But it does reveal a bit about Napoleon's inner-world, assuming Clisson is based on Napoleon (as most historians do). To dive into Napoleon's psyche, would you rather read Napoleon's fiction or his memoirs? Send me a note and let me know!
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What's Coming Up?

Well, I'm still horribly far behind on the Hemingway Project but there is nothing like colder weather to make you curl up with a good book! The next chapters will be here by the end of the month.

And look out for a new podcast episode coming soon. I'm trying something a little different this time. We'll be looking at how to integrate Paris' history into your next Parisian adventure. And for Halloween, there will be a suitably macabre story about one of my favorite French kings!

How are you spending your autumn? Out enjoying the cooler weather or tucked inside with a good book and some hot tea? Let me know by dropping me a line here or on Instagram. I'm definitely a book and tea girl, myself!

À bientôt!

Michelle