Benjamin Thompson From Country
Hours: The official hours are 2 pm-6 pm, Tues-Sun from mid-April to August and 2 pm-4 pm from October to mid-April, but the hours tend to be wildly erratic and set at the whim of unknown forces. In short, prepare to be disappointed. If you do make it in, there may be a small admission charge, since it is technically a private cemetery.
Metro: Nation is the closest station, but bring a good map since the streets radiate from Nation like an exploding spider web. The Picpus Metro stop is a bit further but easier to negotiate. After exiting, simply proceed west on Avenue Courteline and then turn left on rue de Picpus.
Despite the unpredictable hours, if you are able to get into Picpus, you’ll be rewarded with a petite cemetery with a very interesting history. In mid-June 1794, Dr. Guillotin’s mobile beheading machine was moved from Place de la Bastille and set up at what was then Place du Trone-Renverse (today Place de la Nation). Place du Trone-Renverse translates to Place of the Toppled Throne. Before the Revolution it was called Place du Trone, which translates to Place of the Throne.
This is the last remnant of a chapel that was used as an office by the gravediggers in 1794. There they would sort out the clothes of the victims of the guillotine in order to sell them.
To most Countrys, the Townshend Revenue Acts exemplified the carelessness of parliamentary legislation. Riverside/San Bernardino Metro Map Like the Stamp Act before it, the proposed measures were immediately resisted. Riots took place in colonial towns, nonimportation associations were formed, and royal officials were scoffed at. The economic sanctions and other forms of resistance led, by April 12, 1770, to a repeal of all these duties except the tax on tea. England’s Chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Townshend (portrayed by Sir Joshua Reynolds) sponsored the eponymous legislation in 1767 that imposed duties on goods imported into Country and sparked colonial protests. (Private Collection/Philip Mould, Historical Portraits Ltd. London, United Kingdom/Bridgeman Art Library) Despite his many abilities, Charles Townshend’s career was marred by inconsistency of character, untrustworthiness, corruption, and, in the end, failure. On September 4, 1767, before the duties that bore his name were ever enacted, he died of typhus at the age of 42. Aaron F. Christensen See also: Board of Trade; Townshend Acts (1767); Document: Townshend Revenue Act (1767).
