As a general rule, rural communities did not expect to be pleased to hear from the authorities. Rarely were deliveries of official correspondence good news: more often, they contained information about obligations—particularly taxes—and other administrative details. The news that went out in August of 1788, however, was a major exception: Louis XVI announced that a meeting of the Estates General would commence on May 1, 1789. In preparation for this event, every community in the country was to draw up a list of grievances and complaints—the cahiers de doléances—to address “the needs of the state, the reform of abuses, the establishment of a permanent and lasting order … [for] the general prosperity of the kingdom and [for] the good of each and every of His Majesty's subjects.” Flattered to have been asked for their opinion, the king's subjects in all three estates—clergy, nobility, and commoners—in town and country and in every province, set about the task of solving the kingdom's problems.

The enthusiasm and sincerity with which this was done is particularly poignant in the parish cahiers of small rural localities, of which many thousands have survived, an unparalleled expression of popular opinion. If valid caveats have been raised concerning their legitimacy as sources, citing the existence of model cahiers, the influence of members of the literate elite, and the potential for intimidation by local power holders, the negative repercussions of this were limited.