After the capitulation of Sedan, on September 2, 1870, the Emperor Napoleon III was deposed, and the Second Republic was proclaimed on September 4 by a government of national defense in which Léon Gambetta figured. While France decides to continue the war, the Prussian armies and their allies march on Paris. For five months, they besieged the city, condemning the Parisians to starvation. Tragic events recorded in her diary by a young 20-year-old woman belonging to the intellectual bourgeoisie of the capital, Geneviève Bréton.
