Fantastic episode! The whole series, really, but this episode was really great. I am excited about the upcoming Mexican Revolution. Do you have a rough timeline for when it will start? In the meantime this miniseries conviced me to read L'Insurgé by Jules Vallès... Do you plan to organize any kind of event in Paris in the future? Good luck with the book and of course enjoy your stay in the City! Regarding "the Butcher of the Commune", while his wikipedia page somewhat supports that he was the author of some summary executions (https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaston_de_Galliffet#Le_%C2%AB_Massacreur_de_la_Commune_%C2%BB), I am quite skeptical that he called the people of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine "you people of Montmartre", because Monmartre is nowhere near the Faubourg St. Antoine (and I should know: I live in the 11éme)

Great episode! This certainly makes the Second French Empire seem more nuanced than the standard description (basically, Napoleon III was an idiot and it's a miracle it managed to hang on to power as long as he did). In Italian schools the agreement between Cavour and Napoleon III is presented as the crafty Cavour duping the silly Frenchmen. Really, in my textbook there was a sentence along the lines of "and so you can see just how much better was Cavour at diplomacy compared to the French emperor". I am however skeptical of most of what was written in textbooks about Italian unification, it had a very strong taste of nationalistic propaganda... I hope you will enjoy Paris. It is a wonderful city, full of parks and history. Say what you want about him, but Napoleon III's project to turn her into the intellectual capital of Europe succeeded 100%...