Q 01/05

What giant animal did Napoleon plan in bronze for the Bastille site, built only as a plaster model?

A) A winged lion

B) An eagle

C) An elephant

D) A rooster

Answer · why

C) An elephant

An elephant 24 metres tall stood on the square in plaster from 1813 to 1846. Victor Hugo made it the street urchin Gavroche's shelter in Les Misérable...

Q 02/05

How many prisoners were actually inside the Bastille when Parisian crowds stormed the fortress in July 1789?

A) 7

B) 45

C) 300

D) 2,000

Answer · why

A) 7

Just 7 prisoners were inside: four men held for faking documents, two judged insane and a count locked up at his own family's request.

Q 03/05

What single word did Louis XVI write in his journal for the day the Bastille fell?

A) Thunder

B) Nothing

C) Treason

D) Disaster

Answer · why

B) Nothing

Nothing, or Rien in French, was the whole entry. The journal mostly logged hunts and ceremonies, so the word noted a day with no kill, not a verdict o...

Q 04/05

Which American president received the key to the Bastille as a gift from Lafayette?

A) Thomas Jefferson

B) John Quincy Adams

C) James Madison

D) George Washington

Answer · why

D) George Washington

George Washington showed the key off at official events in New York and Philadelphia, then took it home to Mount Vernon, where it remains on display.

Q 05/05

What were the Parisians who attacked the Bastille chiefly hoping to seize from inside the fortress?

A) Gunpowder

B) Royal gold

C) Stored grain

D) Tax records

Answer · why

A) Gunpowder

Gunpowder was the prize: 250 barrels had just been moved into the Bastille for safekeeping, and the crowd had seized muskets that morning with little ...