La Fête Nationale

Today, there’s two blog posts! The first is my usual blog and the second is in honor of the 14th of July!! Joyeux  Le 14 Juillet!

La Fête Nationale, more commonly called Le 14 Juillet (or Bastille Day outside of France), is a day that commemorates the Storming of the Bastille, a turning point of the French Revolution, as well as the Fête de la Fédération which celebrated the unity of the French people. The senate chose the 14th of July over the 4th of August, which would have commemorated the end of the feudal system. However, La Fête Nationale is a day to not only remember the beginning of the French Revolution but also celebrate French pride.

I said in an earlier post that I was going to come back to the storming of the Bastille. Many consider the storming of the Bastille to be the start of the French Revolution. To catch you up on what had been happening right before this: the recent wars (Seven Year’s War and American Revolutionary War) left the French bankrupt, a highly inefficient tax system screwed over the poor, years of bad harvests lead to increased food prices, malnutrition, and hunger, and the rich couldn’t give a damn about the majority of France’s problems. Cool, we’re caught up again. The Bastille, a medieval fortress of a prison that dominated over Paris with its eight 30-meter-high towers, had become a symbol of the monarchy’s dictatorial rule and storming the Bastille became one of the defining moments of the Revolution. The French, sick of all the BS, gathered around the Bastille, demanding the surrender of the prison, as well as the release of the arms and ammunition being kept there (over 30,000 lbs of gun powder). At this point, the Bastille was nearly empty (there was only 7 unimportant prisoners) and it was honestly more money than it was worth. The defenders of the Bastille tried to negotiate with the crowd for several hours. A small group from the crowd sneaked into the inner courtyard and broke the chains of the drawbridge, lowering it down. Soldiers called out for the crowd to back down but through the noise and confusion, the crowd misheard an invite to enter. Thinking the crowd was intentionally going against their orders, the soldiers starting shooting at the invading crowd. The crowd thinking they’ve been lured into a trap soon became an angry mob and the event became violent. Eventually the mob won and King Louis XVI found out about it the following day. There’s some really cool art about the storming of the Bastille, feel free to check it out here.

How do people celebrate the 14th of July? It’s mostly celebrated in Paris. Traditionally, there are barbecues on the night of the 13th with singing and dancing. Then the morning of the 14th, every year since 1880, on the Champs Elysées in Paris, they hold a parade in honor of the French military. A lot of people like to go picnicking at the park today. In the evening, they finish the day with firework displays. Outside of France, most people see this as day to celebrate French culture and food.

A highlight of today’s parade:

And the fireworks (30 mins long – they’re pretty cool):

VIVE LA FRANCE!!!!!

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