Pétroleuses
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Pétroleuses
''Pétroleuses'' were, according to popular rumours at the time, female supporters of the Paris Commune, accused of burning down much of Paris during the last days of the Commune in May 1871. During May, when Paris was being recaptured by loyalist Adolphe Thiers, Versaillais troops, rumours circulated that lower-class women were committing arson against private property and public buildings, using bottles full of petroleum or kerosene, paraffin (similar to modern-day Molotov cocktails) which they threw into cellar windows, in a deliberate act of Spite (sentiment), spite against the government. Many Parisian buildings, including the Hôtel de Ville, Paris, Hôtel de Ville, the Tuileries Palace, the Palais de Justice, Paris, Palais de Justice and many other government buildings were in fact set afire by the soldiers of the Commune during the last days of the Commune, prompting the press and Parisian public opinion to blame the . Background During the Bloody Week at the end of the ...
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Eulalie Papavoine
Eulalie Papavoine (11 November 184624 May 1875) was a Parisian seamstress. She participated in the Paris Commune as an ambulance nurse. Biography Paris Commune Eulalie Papavoine was unmarried and lived with Rémy Ernest Balthazar, a journeyman engraver, who was a corporal in the 135th battalion of the National Guard. She had a child with him. During the Paris Commune, she followed him as an ambulance nurse to battles at Neuilly, Issy, Vanves, and Levallois. Arrest and trial Arrested after Bloody Week, Papavoine was imprisoned at Satory, identified as a probable ringleader alongside Louise Michel and Victorine Gorget, then taken with about forty other women to the Chantiers prison at Versailles. Eventually she was taken to a detention centre with very difficult conditions. The trial of the " pétroleuses" began on 3 September 1871. Papavoine was accused, alongside Léontine Suétens, of having stolen three handkerchiefs from a house on the Rue de Solférino. A first aid ...
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Paris Commune
The Paris Commune (, ) was a French revolutionary government that seized power in Paris on 18 March 1871 and controlled parts of the city until 28 May 1871. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the French National Guard (France), National Guard had defended Paris, and working-class radicalism grew among its soldiers. Following the establishment of the French Third Republic in September 1870 (under French chief-executive Adolphe Thiers from February 1871) and the complete defeat of the French Army by the Germans by March 1871, soldiers of the National Guard seized control of the city on 18 March. The Communards killed two French Army generals and refused to accept the authority of the Third Republic; instead, the radicals set about establishing their own independent government. The Commune governed Paris for two months, promoting policies that tended toward a Progressivism, progressive, anti-clericalism , anti-religious system, which was an eclectic mix of many 19th-cent ...
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Léontine Suétens
Léontine Suétens (1846-1891) was a laundress and a communard. She was convicted in the trial of the " pétroleuses", which began 3 September 1871. Life Before the Paris Commune Léontine Suétens was born in 1846 in Beauvais. Her father, Jean Baptiste Suétens, a tailor with progressive ideas, left for Paris in 1848. Her mother, Sophie Olympe Doudeuil, was also from a working-class family. She lived in concubinage with a carver, Aubert, from 1864. She was convicted to a year of imprisonment for theft in 1867. In 1870, she followed her companion, a sergeant-major of the 135th bataillion, and became a cantinière. She participated in the battles of Neuilly, Issy, Vanves, and Levallois-Perret, where she was wounded twice. She wore a red scarf, carried a Chassepot rifle, and helped the wounded. Trial Suétens was one of the defendants of the trial of the " pétroleuses" that began on 3 September 1871. Her lawyer was delinquent, so she was defended by a military office ...
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Anne-Marie Ménand
Anne-Marie Ménand, née Marie Louise Ménan (born 9 June 1837) was a cook who was accused of being an arsonist during the Paris Commune. She was arrested, brought before the military tribunal, and sentenced to death. Her sentence was commuted and she was instead deported to French Guiana. Biography Ménand was a Breton, born on 9 June 1837 in Saint-Séglin, Ille-et-Vilaine, to a labourer, Barthélémy Ménan, and his wife Périne Bertier. Her name is variously given as Anne-Marie, Marie Josèphe, or Jeanne-Marie, and her last name as Ménan, Ménand, or Menans. The date of her arrival in Paris is unknown, but she was a cook there until 1867. She then became a newspaper-seller at Rue Royale and Place de la Madeleine. In the neighbourhood, she was known as "the woman with the yellow dog." She lived in Vincennes in October 1870, selling eau de vie to soldiers and engaging in prostitution; she was often seen drunk. During the Siege of Paris, in December 1870, she was senten ...
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Petrol Girls
Petrol Girls are an English punk rock band formed in London in 2012 by Ren Aldridge and Liepa Kuraitė, with Joe York and Zock Astpai joining later. The band is named after the historical Pétroleuses and is outspokenly feminist. They have released three albums on independent labels. They have received media coverage from The Independent, Kerrang!, NPR and Vice Media History Petrol Girls formed and played their first show in 2012, after just two practises, at a house party hosted by founding member Ren Aldridge (vocals) to celebrate International Women’s Day. Retaining original bassist Liepa Kuraitė, who had never played before Aldridge invited her to join, they eventually recruited Joe York (guitar) and Zock Astpai (drums) to complete a sustainable lineup. Aldridge took the name from a group of 19th century French revolutionaries, ''les Pétroleuses'', after hearing them mentioned by Laurie Penny. After two EPs, their eponymous self-released 7-inch from 2014 and ''Some Thi ...
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Édith Thomas
Édith Thomas (23 January 1909 – 7 December 1970) was a French novelist, archivist, historian, and journalist. A bisexual pioneer of women's history, she reputedly inspired a character of the erotic novel ''Story of O''.Dorothy Kaufmann, ''Édith Thomas, A Passion for Resistance'', Cornell University Press, 2004 Career Thomas was born in Montrouge, and studied at the École des chartes, from which she graduated in 1931. In 1933, her first novel, ''La Mort de Marie'' (Mary's Death), was awarded the '' Prix du Premier Roman''. A few years later she quit her job to become a journalist at ''Ce Soir'', a left-wing evening newspaper close to the Popular Front government. She also contributed to various magazines (''Vendredi'', ''Europe'', ''Regards'') for which she covered the Spanish Civil War on the Republican side. During World War II, she joined the Résistance and became a member of the French Communist Party in 1942. She wrote a series of short stories under male pseudonym ...
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French Guiana
French Guiana, or Guyane in French, is an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France located on the northern coast of South America in the Guianas and the West Indies. Bordered by Suriname to the west and Brazil to the east and south, French Guiana covers a total area of and a land area of . As of January 2025, it is home to 292,354 people. French Guiana is the second-largest Regions of France, region in France, being approximately one-seventh the size of metropolitan France, European France, and the largest Special member state territories and the European Union, outermost region within the European Union. It has a very low population density, with only . About half of its residents live in its capital, Cayenne. Approximately 98.9% of French Guiana is covered by forests, much of it Old-growth forest, primeval Tropical rainforest, rainforest. Guiana Amazonian Park, the largest national park in the European Union covers 41% of French ...
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Joséphine Marchais
Joséphine Marguerite Marchais, née Rabier (13 April 1837 – 20 February 1874), was a French day labourer who was an active participant in the Paris Commune in 1871. Arrested while carrying weapons, she was condemned to death. Her sentence was commuted to forced labour, and she was deported to Guiana. Biography Joséphine Marchais was born 13 April 1837 in Blois in Loir-et-Cher. She was from a disadvantaged background and had a difficult family situation. She herself spent six months in prison for theft, and her mother and sister were also incarcerated. In 1871, during the Paris Commune, she was a vivandière in the Enfants Perdus, along with her lover, a butcher's assistant named Jean Guy. According to witnesses, she was at the barricade on the Rue de Lille on 22 and 23 May, with her rifle and Tyrolean hat; she was accused of looting, obscenity, and profanity, and was said to have declared, "if I am killed, I want to kill first!" Witnesses also said that she forced h ...
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Élisabeth Rétiffe
Élisabeth Rétiffe (born Rose Rétif, January 9, 1834, in Vézelise, died February 24, 1882, in Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni) was a French cardboard maker, socialist activist, ambulance worker and communard. She was condemned to death for her action during the Paris Commune, where she was sentenced to perform hard labor before she was deported to Guyana. Biography Earning her living as a cardboard maker, she decided to help those who were needy in Paris. Her strong temper had her sentenced in 1853 for assault and battery against another woman, and in 1855 for contempt of officers. During the insurrection of the Paris Commune in 1871, she became an ambulance driver and declared that she would have treated the people as well as the communards. Witnesses claim to have seen her in May 1871 among the troops of the Communards of Belleville wearing the red scarf and a rifle slung over her shoulder. She is also accused of being a " petroleuse" and guilty of arson. While she denied these ...
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Hôtel-Dieu, Paris
The Hôtel-Dieu (; "God Shelter") is a public hospital located on the Île de la Cité in the 4th arrondissement of Paris, 4th arrondissement of Paris, on the parvis of Notre-Dame de Paris, Notre-Dame. Tradition has it that the hospital was founded by Landry of Paris, Saint Landry in 651 AD, but the first official records date it to 829, making it the oldest in France and possibly the oldest continuously operating hospital in the world. The Hôtel-Dieu was the only hospital in the city until the beginning of the 17th century. The original Hôtel-Dieu stood on the banks of the Seine on the southern side of the Île de la Cité. It was ravaged by fire several times and was rebuilt for the last time at its present location on the north side of the parvis of Notre-Dame de Paris, Notre Dame between 1867 and 1878, as part of Haussmann's renovation of Paris. Currently operated by Assistance publique – Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP), the Hôtel-Dieu is a teaching hospital associated with th ...
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Notre Dame De Paris
Notre-Dame de Paris ( ; meaning "Cathedral of Our Lady of Paris"), often referred to simply as Notre-Dame, is a Medieval architecture, medieval Catholic cathedral on the Île de la Cité (an island in the River Seine), in the 4th arrondissement of Paris, France. It is the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Paris. The cathedral, dedicated to the Virgin Mary ("Our Lady"), is considered one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture. Several attributes set it apart from the earlier Romanesque style, including its pioneering use of the rib vault and flying buttress, its enormous and colourful rose windows, and the naturalism (art), naturalism and abundance of its sculptural decoration. Notre-Dame is also exceptional for its three Pipe organ, pipe organs (one historic) and Bells of Notre-Dame de Paris, its immense church bells. The construction of the cathedral began in 1163 under Bishop Maurice de Sully and was largely completed by 1260, though it was ...
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