French is Not My Forte

I will be the first to admit that I am not a foreign language person. Never have been and probably never will be. It's a fact that I have had to accept throughout the years and one that my French teachers have also come to terms with. Nothing scares me more than someone giving me the third degree in a foreign language. I get the whole deer caught in the headlights look in my eyes and from there everything just goes downhill.
However, when I encountered a few French Revolutionary War pamphlets on food supply and distribution I couldn't bring myself to back down from the challenge. And let me tell you, it was a challenge at times going through the pamphlets and decipher what they were talking about. But in the end the struggle had been worth it because I learned so much about the French individuals view on food during the time at the Revolution. People felt that one of the main causes for the upheaval in the European country was due to the supply and demand of food. The peasants in France were starving while the wealthy upper class was living a life of wealth and luxury. The pamphlets called for the government and the people of France to find a way to provide all the people with enough food to secure their health and well being. Starvation and food disruption were two of the major motivations for the start of the French Revolution. When citizens of a nation fall upon hard times the one thing that can quickly ignite a riot or war is starvation and lack of food supplies. Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVI learned that the hard way when they lost their heads.