The Storming of the Bastille: France's Revolutionary Dawn

In this pilot episode of The Story of France, hosts Lucas and Luna begin in the summer of 1789, standing with the Parisian crowd before the Bastille. Lucas traces the slow collapse of the ancien régime under Louis XVI, the financial crisis that forced the convocation of the Estates-General, and the radicalization of the Third Estate into the National Assembly. They discuss the fall of the Bastille not as a single event, but as a symbol of the end of divine-right monarchy in France. The episode then pulls back to preview the revolution's escalating phases: the Declaration of the Rights of Man, the flight to Varennes, the Reign of Terror, and the eventual rise of Napoleon. Lucas and Luna consider the core tensions of French identity—liberty vs. authority, revolution vs. order—that will echo through every era to come. #FrenchRevolution #Bastille #LouisXVI #EstatesGeneral #ThirdEstate #NationalAssembly #1789 #AncienRGime #Tricolour #DeclarationOfTheRightsOfMan #FexingoHistory #History #Europe #France #Revolution #Versailles #StormingOfTheBastille #MarieAntoinette #NapoleonBonaparte #LouisXIV Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo