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HAPPY BASTILLE DAY!!!


For those who don’t know… July 14 is the French national day, simply called Fête nationale or 14 juillet (though it is generally referred to as Bastille Day in English). It commemorates the 1790 Fête de la Fédération, held on the first anniversary of the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789; the Fête de la Fédération was seen as a symbol of the uprising of the modern French "nation", and of the reconciliation of all the French inside the constitutional monarchy which preceded the First Republic, during the French Revolution.

Military parades are held on the morning of July 14, the largest of which takes place on the Champs-Élysées avenue in Paris in front of the President of the Republic. Many cities hold fireworks during the night. Many dancing parties are organized and it is customary that firefighters organize them.

Bastille Day also falls during the running of the Tour de France, and is traditionally the day upon which French riders will make a special effort to take a stage victory for France.

Here’s a little history about storming the Bastille (thanks Wikipedia!)…

On May 5, 1789, Louis XVI convened the Estates-General to hear their grievances. The deputies of the Third Estate representing the common people (the two others were clergy and nobility) decided to break away and form a National Assembly. On June 20 the deputies of the Third Estate took the Tennis Court Oath (named after the hall where they had gathered which was frequently used for playing "jeu de paume", an ancestor of tennis), swearing not to separate until a Constitution had been established.

To show their support, the people of Paris stormed the Bastille, a prison where people were jailed by arbitrary decision of the King. The Bastille was, in particular, known for holding political prisoners whose writings had displeased the royal government. Thus the Bastille was a symbol of the absolutism of the monarchy.

There were only seven inmates housed at the time of the siege. The storming of the Bastille was more important as a rallying point and symbolic act of rebellion than a practical act of defiance. No less important in the history of France, it was not the image typically conjured up of courageous French patriots storming the Bastille and freeing hundreds of oppressed peasants. However, it did immediately inspire preparations amongst the peasants for the very real threat of retaliation. Despite the mythology of freeing revolutionaries, the storming of the Bastille, which housed only a handful of common prisoners, was actually done to raid the prison's supply of arms and ammunition against a false rumor that the king's troops were moving on Paris from Versailles.

Shortly after the storming of the Bastille, on August 26, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was proclaimed.

So there’s a little French history for the day. So go and celebrate tonight and have a nice bottle of French wine and maybe even some French cheese. Oui oui!