Place de la Bastille many worse prisons in France, including the dreaded Bicêtre, also in Paris. However, in terms of popular literary accounts, the Bastille was a place of horror and oppression, a symbol of autocratic cruelty. The confrontation between the commoners and the Ancien Régime ultimately led to the people of Paris storming the Bastille on July 14, 1789, following several days of disturbances. At this point, the prison was nearly empty, with only seven inmates: four counterfeiters, two madmen, and a young aristocrat who had displeased his father. The regular garrison consisted of about 80 'invalides' (veteran soldiers no longer capable of
Paris in the 18th century an offense to public morality and urged that they be moved from the center of the city, but they were popular and remained. In 1783, the police finally restricted bathing in the river during the day, but bathing at night was still allowed. The first daily newspaper in the city, the "Journal de Paris", began publication on 1 January 1777. It was four pages long, printed on small sheets of paper, and focused on local news, and what was allowed by the royal censors. The press did not emerge as a force in Parisian life until 1789 and the Revolution,