The Fifth Day of Messidor (June 24), Midsummer's Day

Maximillien had hired hands setting up the Place de la Bastille for three days, just before Midsummer. He knew that public opinion was turning against him, and thought nothing would remedy the situation better than a festival. Hired jugglers wandered the streets, along with musicians and other performers. Food stalls were set up. Every available surface was draped in the French colors, blue, white, and red, and a flag flew from the tent set up in the center of the square, a capacious and breezy structure likewise draped in blue and red and white.

Everyone was allowed, of course. He'd had pamphlets distributed throughout the city, hoping to break the tension that followed his crackdown on counterrevolutionary priests, many of whom had the support of the people.

Everyone was allowed... and he'd pay attention to anyone who didn't come, just as he had paid attention to those not in attendance for the Festival of the Supreme Being not long before. That had been less than a success, but this might work in his favor, since it wasn't religious, merely patriotic.

Also on display were large posters depicting Lady Liberty, made from a careful woodcut by Jacques-Louis David and printed in multiple (though Maximillien didn't know it, the figure was modeled after the whore Nicholle Loillet).

He thought it looked like a lovely spectacle. Inside the tent, people were dancing to a small band. No longer were celebrations only for the rich or the noble. Now everyone could take part.

Later on, a man he'd hired would set off fireworks in blue and red, splashing color across the night sky, but for now it was like any day fair--though not ever fair sported the words 'Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité' splashed in enormous red letters across a central tent.

Maximillian himself stayed out of the thick of things, wandering around like any common man, free to speak with whomever wanted to talk to him.



OOC:

This is a Special Occasion, which will take over the Place de la Bastille for two weeks. Feel free to post as you like in any of the locations mentioned in the above post. There's a tent for dancing, and performers and food stalls in the streets. Later on in the night, there will be fireworks. If anyone wants to inject some plot--say, sabotage of the fireworks, cutpurses, who knows--feel free to PM me and we can set it up. In the meantime, have fun, make social and political connections, and maybe do a little scheming hidden in plain sight...

Do not respond to this topic. Instead, feel free to start new topics beneath this one in the tent or the surrounding parts of the square.