From a woman locked up for "debauching" a husband to a son found in "a bad place" and given away by his father, the archives of the Bastille prison are a mine of historical information. Comprising some 2,500 boxes and hundreds of thousands of pages, they were dispersed after the French Revolution of 14 July 1789 and offer a rare insight into life at the time. They have been given a makeover by the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal in Paris, restored for future generations to study. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES