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the tension between the center and the provinces

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this tensions is crucial in understanding the course of the French Revolution and its outcomes

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agriculture

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subsistence poly-culture

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no national or international market as there is today

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surrounding forest provided crucial firewood

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languages

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only a minority of people spoke French in daily life

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e.g. in Languedoc they spoke Occitan

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they spoke regional dialects or different languages altogether

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however, most of the educated class and nobles did speak French

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institutional arrangements of 18th century France

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in the North there was customary law, in the South there was written (Roman) law

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southern France had been part of the Roman Empire

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ancient traditions of codified law

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administrative map

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some regions enjoyed more autonomy than others

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tax and custom areas

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had to pay to move goods from one part of France to another, e.g. salt

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18th century France was the result of eight centuries of royal state making

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accounts of women smuggling salt in their dresses between Brittany and central France

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privileges

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difference between the privileged orders and the commons

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local regional centers were much more important in people's lives than the court in distant Versailles

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e.g. Arles

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had been the capital of Roman Gaul in 4th and 5th centuries

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people in southern France looked more to Arles as the center of their political world than to Versailles

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e.g. Pont-de-Montvert

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three of more months of the year covered in snow

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customarily poor place

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people often survived on chestnuts

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spoke Occitan

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chose to worship as Protestants