Place de la Bastille in Paris

14 December 2018 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Paris / Île-de-France Reading Time:  12 minutes

Place de la Bastille © Kaihsu Tai

Place de la Bastille © Kaihsu Tai

The Place de la Bastille is a square in Paris where the Bastille prison stood until the storming of the Bastille and its subsequent physical destruction between 14 July 1789 and 14 July 1790 during the French Revolution. No vestige of the prison remains. The square straddles 3 arrondissements of Paris, namely the 4th, 11th and 12th. The square and its surrounding areas are normally called simply Bastille.   read more…

Bastille Day

13 July 2013 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  5 minutes

Patrouille de France over Avenue des Champs-Élysées © David Monniaux/cc-by-sa-2.0-fr

Patrouille de France over Avenue des Champs-Élysées © David Monniaux/cc-by-sa-2.0-fr

Bastille Day is the name given in English-speaking countries to the French National Day, which is celebrated on 14 July each year. In France, it is formally called La Fête Nationale (The National Celebration) and commonly Le quatorze juillet (the fourteenth of July). It commemorates the 1790 Fête de la Fédération, held on the first anniversary of the storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789; the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille fortress-prison was seen as a symbol of the uprising of the modern nation, and of the reconciliation of all the French inside the constitutional monarchy which preceded the First Republic, during the French Revolution. Festivities and official ceremonies are held all over France. The oldest and largest regular military parade in Europe is held on the morning of 14 July, on the Champs-Élysées avenue in Paris in front of the President of the Republic, French officials and foreign guests.   read more…

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