Le Quartorze Juillet, also known as La Fête Nationale or, especially in English-speaking countries, simply Bastille Day, is next Sunday. July 14th is a French national holiday that marks the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille (prison) in 1789 and the symbolic birth of modern France. To learn more about the history of this fête nationale, please see an earlier TMT post. If you are lucky enough to be in France as you read this post, it will not be difficult to find a place to celebrate Bastille Day. Depending on where you are, there may be long parades, fireworks, airplanes decorating the sky with tri-color contrails, music, dancing, and communal dinners; but, no matter where you find yourself, there will be people making merriment. This is a holiday the French take very seriously…and celebrate passionately! French Revolutionary Emblem, 1789,from Life Magazine archives In Paris, where, in 1974, I first celebrated Bastille Day, I will never forget the huge numbers of manifestly proud French people—of all ages—that lined the Avenue des Champs-Elysées, waiting for the parade of tanks, military troops, and bands that would eventually roll down the famous avenue. From the Place de La Concorde to the Arc [...]