{"id":7488,"date":"2011-06-20T00:05:22","date_gmt":"2011-06-20T04:05:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=7488"},"modified":"2017-10-19T14:20:58","modified_gmt":"2017-10-19T12:20:58","slug":"why-the-french-must-dump-bastille-day-and-proudly-celebrate-today-instead-june-20th","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/why-the-french-must-dump-bastille-day-and-proudly-celebrate-today-instead-june-20th\/","title":{"rendered":"Why The French Must Dump Bastille Day"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">If you are the sort of person who does not blindly celebrate dates just because others do, here&#8217;s for you a\u00a0<em>r\u00e9sum\u00e9<\/em> of\u00a0Bastille Day&#8217;s &#8220;inside story&#8221;:\u00a0Contrary to the prevailing popular belief, &#8220;Bastille Day&#8221; marked a disastrous hijacking of the French Revolution, operated at the behest of an often unsuspected hostile foreign power: <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Great Britain<\/span>, whom the French, as it turned out, didn&#8217;t nickname &#8220;<em>la perfide Albion<\/em>&#8221; for no good reason!<br \/>\n<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\"> The truly &#8220;historical date&#8221; worthy of celebration took place only a few weeks prior to the bloody day of July 14th, 1789: On <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">June 20th<\/span>, when Lafayette led other authentic French patriots to swear the so-called &#8220;<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Serment de jeu de Paume<\/span>&#8221; (the &#8220;Tennis Court Oath.&#8221;)<strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><em>Demandez\u00a0\u00e0 n&#8217;importe qui au hasard<\/em> <\/strong>(ask anyone randomly): <strong>&#8220;<em>c&#8217;est quoi\u00a0le 14 Juillet<\/em><\/strong> (what is the 14 of July)?&#8221;, and you&#8217;re likely to hear the answer &#8220;<strong><em>c&#8217;est la f\u00eate nationale!<\/em><\/strong>&#8221; (it&#8217;s the national celebration!)\u00a0<strong><em>Mais encore? <\/em><\/strong>(What else?) &#8220;It&#8217;s to celebrate\u00a0a major event in<strong> <em>l&#8217;histoire de France<\/em>:\u00a0<em>la prise de la Bastille<\/em><\/strong>(the storming of the Bastille.)&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">And for you, personally,\u00a0what does\u00a0the\u00a0<strong><em>14 juillet<\/em><\/strong> stand for?<\/span><\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><em>La f\u00eate et la musique dans les rues de France?<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><em><em>Le d\u00e9fil\u00e9 du quatorze juillet?<\/em><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The question one should ask is: What happened\u00a0<strong><em>exactement <\/em><\/strong>in that particular day of\u00a0<strong>July 14th, 1789<\/strong>?<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\"> And why should it be relevant to all of us, today, more than two centuries ago?<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Furthermore, does the importance of this day solely concern the French and their own history?<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">To help us bring an initial answer to these questions, and to put matters into\u00a0their accurate\u00a0<strong><em>perspective historique<\/em><\/strong>, we will\u00a0turn to an\u00a0eyewitness of the storming of the Bastille,\u00a0a brilliant, towering figure of French literature,\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/rome-la-ville-eternelle-the-eternal-city-through-the-eyes-of-a-brilliant-frenchman\/\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Chateaubriand<\/span><\/a><\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Referring to the dramatic events that took place on that fateful day of <strong>July 14th, 1789<\/strong>, Chateaubriand identifies one\u00a0-quote-\u00a0&#8220;<strong>lying and cynical revealer of the corruption of the upper classes<\/strong><em>&#8220;<\/em>,\u00a0whom he\u00a0holds directly responsible for the horrendous massacres he witnessed that day.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">But before we go further, and again,\u00a0for the sake of clear perspective,\u00a0it is important to remember that the\u00a0French Revolution came in the aftermath of another major revolution\u00a0<strong><em>outre-atlantique <\/em><\/strong>(on the other side of the Atlantic), namely\u00a0<strong><em>la R\u00e9volution am\u00e9ricaine<\/em><\/strong>, when the French,\u00a0through another<strong> <em>figure marquante <\/em><\/strong>of French literature,\u00a0<strong>Beaumarchais<\/strong>, as well as the\u00a0<strong>Marquis de Lafayette<\/strong> [picture below], <strong><em>entre autres <\/em><\/strong>(among others),brought a crucial and thoroughly decisive\u00a0assistance to\u00a0the American troops\u00a0in their war against\u00a0<strong><em>la Grande Bretagne<\/em><\/strong><em>.<\/em><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The\u00a0American Revolution<strong><em> a donn\u00e9 naissance <\/em><\/strong>(has given birth)\u00a0to\u00a0<strong><em>les\u00a0<em>\u00c9tats<\/em>-Unis<\/em><\/strong><em>, <\/em>a few years\u00a0only before the beginning of the French Revolution. With the drafting of its remarkable\u00a0<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.archives.gov\/exhibits\/charters\/constitution.html\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Constitution of the United States<\/span><\/a><\/strong>, it\u00a0was to yield\u00a0<strong><em>une profonde influence <\/em><\/strong>on the French minds and hearts, encouraging a group of French friends of\u00a0the returning\u00a0<strong>Lafayette<\/strong> (who named one of his sons <strong>George Washington<\/strong>) to follow the footsteps of\u00a0<strong><em><em>les P\u00e8res fondateurs<\/em> des \u00c9tats-Unis <\/em><\/strong>(the Founding Fathers of the United States.) Their set objective was to create their own constitutional form of government:\u00a0<strong><em>une Constitution\u00a0<em>fran\u00e7aise<\/em><\/em><\/strong> that would\u00a0mirror the same\u00a0principles upheld by the\u00a0American Constitution,\u00a0<strong><em>sans effusion de sang <\/em><\/strong>(with no bloodshed.)<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Thus were born the idea and ideals of the French Revolution: A <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>peaceful change<\/strong><\/span> into a <strong>Republican <\/strong>form of government, inspired directly from the new Republican model of the United States.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Unfortunately -and this is a very important point to keep in mind-\u00a0the leadership of\u00a0<strong><em>la Grande Bretagne<\/em><\/strong>, which suffered the recent\u00a0loss of its North American colonies at the hands of\u00a0<strong>Washington<\/strong> and\u00a0<strong>Lafayette<\/strong>, was understandably not too thrilled\u00a0at the prospect of\u00a0seeing\u00a0<strong><em>le mod\u00e8le am\u00e9ricain <\/em><\/strong>emulated anywhere else, which poised a deadly threat to the vast hegemony of its global\u00a0colonial Empire<em>, &#8220;<strong>sur lequel le Soleil ne se couche\u00a0jamais&#8221; <\/strong><\/em><strong>(&#8220;on which the sun never sets.&#8221;)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The threat of anti-colonial &#8220;<strong>republican proliferation<\/strong>&#8221; spreading to\u00a0<strong>France <\/strong>from the newborn <strong>United States<\/strong> was deemed very alarming, as the highest circles of the British establishment perceived it as &#8220;lying in their own backyard.&#8221; Located only a <strong>150<\/strong> miles apart through <strong><em>la Manche <\/em>(the English Channel)<\/strong>, the two nations maintained an age-old\u00a0<strong><em>rivalit\u00e9 <\/em><\/strong>(rivalry) on\u00a0the cultural, economic, and geopolitical levels.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">One can therefore picture,\u00a0<strong><em>*dans les grandes lignes* <\/em><\/strong>(in the broad lines), without a risk of\u00a0oversimplification, two\u00a0<strong><em>groupes d&#8217;acteurs d\u00e9terminants <\/em><\/strong>(determining groups of actors) who stood at the forefront of\u00a0<em>la\u00a0<strong>R\u00e9volution fran\u00e7aise<\/strong><\/em>:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em>Le groupe du mod\u00e8le am\u00e9ricain<\/em><\/span>:<\/strong> Centered around the veteran hero\u00a0of the American Revolution,\u00a0<strong>Lafayette<\/strong>, and others\u00a0such as the renown scientist\u00a0Lavoisier [picture below], an outstanding figure in the field of chemistry, whom you may recall from his famous maxim:\u00a0<em>&#8220;<\/em><strong><em>Rien ne se perd, rien ne se cr\u00e9e, tout se transforme<\/em><\/strong>&#8221; (<em>&#8220;<\/em>nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is transformed&#8221;), later to be known as the &#8220;<strong>law of the conservation of mass.<\/strong>&#8220;<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em>Le groupe anti<\/em>&#8211;<em>mod\u00e8le<\/em> <em>am\u00e9ricain <\/em>(or <em>pro-britannique<\/em>):<\/span><\/strong> The leader\u00a0<strong><em>incontest\u00e9<\/em> <\/strong>of this group was none other than the dear cousin of the\u00a0King Louis XVI, the\u00a0<strong>Duc d&#8217;Orl\u00e9ans<\/strong> [picture below], who never concealed his feverish\u00a0<strong><em>anglomanie<\/em><\/strong>, especiallyafter\u00a0sojourning in England for a while, where he is known to have\u00a0fallen\u00a0under the through control of British Minister\u00a0<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=lwsbAAAAYAAJ&amp;dq=%22il%20est%20envoy%C3%A9%20par%20Pitt%20pour%20activer%20la%20r%C3%A9volution%22&amp;pg=PA350#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Nathaniel Parker-Forth<\/span><\/a><\/strong> (Parker-Forth, in one\u00a0<strong><em>co\u00efncidence amusante<\/em><\/strong><em>, <\/em>is the\u00a0<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.wargs.com\/other\/murdoch.html\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">great-great-great-grand father<\/span><\/a><\/strong> of\u00a0<strong>News Corporation<\/strong>-owner <strong>Rupert Murdoch<\/strong>, of which the &#8220;French-loving&#8221;\u00a0<strong>Fox News<\/strong> is a subsidiary.)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Not surprisingly, then, the Duke\u00a0nurtured obvious\u00a0ambitions to replace his cousin,\u00a0the French King, by any necessary means. <strong><em>Pour cette raison <\/em><\/strong>(for this reason),\u00a0he specifically devoted his\u00a0<em><strong>Palais-Royal<\/strong><\/em> at the heart of Paris to\u00a0further his\u00a0schemes, turning it into a &#8220;<strong><em>jacobin<\/em><\/strong>&#8221; nest of intrigues,\u00a0and\u00a0enlisting the services of three Swiss figures, whom we shall call &#8220;<em><strong>les 3 SUiSSES<\/strong><\/em>&#8221; <strong>(&#8220;The 3 Swiss.&#8221;)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Those\u00a0&#8220;<strong>3 SUiSSES<\/strong>&#8221; are almost forgotten today, despite the fact that they played a key role in the\u00a0dramatic deviation of the\u00a0French Revolution, namely the shift from a movement initiated by the pro-American constitution\u00a0model, based on the Platonic concept of\u00a0<strong><em>la r\u00e9publique <\/em><\/strong>(the Republic), to an unfortunate,\u00a0bloodthirsty campaign, which eventually led to\u00a0what historians dubbed\u00a0<strong><em>la Grande\u00a0Terreur<\/em><\/strong>, often\u00a0resulting in the\u00a0beheading\u00a0of its very own instigators\u00a0by way of\u00a0the\u00a0<strong><em>guillotine<\/em><\/strong> &#8212;Eventually not sparing its own &#8220;godfather&#8221;, namely the Duke d&#8217;Orl\u00e9ans himself.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The &#8220;3 SUiSSES&#8221; in question are, namely:\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Necker<\/strong><\/span> (father of the famous\u00a0<strong>Madame de Sta\u00ebl<\/strong>), <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Marat<\/strong><\/span>, and\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><em>le Baron de Besenval<\/em><\/strong><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00a0Notwithstanding the flood of vehement attacks unleashed by the Swiss\u00a0journalist\u00a0<strong>Marat<\/strong>,\u00a0the\u00a0<strong>Lafayette group <\/strong>gained the upper hand over the\u00a0<strong>Duc d&#8217;Orl\u00e9ans<\/strong> and his Swiss partners in crime, achieving a\u00a0major victory only a few weeks before the\u00a0storming of the Bastille was scheduled to take place, through the establishment of the first\u00a0<strong><em>Assembl\u00e9e Nationale <\/em><\/strong>(National Assembly), as a direct\u00a0result of what ought to be celebrated as the true French national day, namely the\u00a0&#8220;<em><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Serment du jeu de paume<\/strong><\/span>.<\/em>&#8220;<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">&#8220;<em>Serment du jeu de paume<\/em>&#8221;\u00a0(known in\u00a0English as the &#8220;Tennis Court Oath&#8221;),\u00a0held\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em>le 20 Juin 1789<\/em> (June 20th, 1789)<\/span> favored the establishment of the first French National Constituent Assembly, of which Lafayette was the Vice-President<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Having lost political momentum, especially after\u00a0<strong><em>le Roi <\/em><\/strong>(the King)\u00a0Louis XVI dismissed <strong>Necker<\/strong>, the &#8220;economic hitman&#8221; among the three Swiss stooges,\u00a0<strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">three days* before <\/span><\/strong><em><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">le 14 juillet<\/span><\/strong>,<\/em> from his post of\u00a0<strong><em>contr\u00f4leur g\u00e9n\u00e9ral des finances<\/em><\/strong>, <em><strong>le Duc d&#8217;Orl\u00e9ans<\/strong><\/em>desperately needed an urgent gambit move: Setting the stage for the\u00a0<strong>Baron de Besenval<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The Swiss Baron was\u00a0in charge of the<strong><em> Gardes<\/em><\/strong><strong><em>Suisses<\/em><\/strong>, whose function was to ensure the safety of\u00a0<strong><em>la population parisienne<\/em><\/strong>. Instead, he organized the storming of the Bastille, and ordered the killing of several innocent bypassing people in the most random fashion,\u00a0with the clear intent of stirring up enough social unrest, the main objective of which was strongarming\u00a0<strong><em>le Roi<\/em> <\/strong>(the King) into recalling\u00a0<strong>Necker<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">That is, unfortunately, exactly what happened,\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><em>seulement trois jours plus tard <\/em><\/strong><\/span>(only\u00a0three days later.)\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">To come back to\u00a0<strong>Chateaubriand<\/strong>, the great French writer\u00a0did not use very flattering words\u00a0to describe the sinister Baron. In his &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=oUpkVJXdyXIC&amp;lpg=PA276&amp;dq=%22la%20bastille%22%20%2B%22chateaubriand%22%20%2B%22besenval%22&amp;pg=PA276#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><strong>M\u00e9moires d&#8217;Outre-Tombe&#8221;<\/strong><\/em> (page 276)<\/span><\/a>, where he tells the story of how he, as a young man, witnessed &#8220;live&#8221; the storming of the Bastille, he portrays the Swiss Baron in the following terms:<\/span><\/p>\n<pre style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\"<em><strong>Le baron de Besenval, <\/strong><\/em><strong><em>\r\n<em>r\u00e9v\u00e9lateur menteur et cynique des corruptions de la haute soci\u00e9t\u00e9,<\/em>\r\n<em>mouche du coche des pu\u00e9rilit\u00e9s de la vieille monarchie expirante, ce<\/em>\r\n<em>lourd baron compromis dans l'affaire de la Bastille, sauv\u00e9 par M.<\/em>\r\n<em>Necker et par Mirabeau, uniquement parce qu'il \u00e9tait Suisse: quelle<\/em>\r\n<em>mis\u00e8re! Qu'avaient \u00e0 faire de pareils hommes avec de pareils<\/em>\r\n<em>\u00e9v\u00e9nements? Quand la R\u00e9volution eut grandi, elle abandonna avec d\u00e9dain<\/em>\r\n<em>les frivoles apostats du tr\u00f4ne: elle avait eu besoin de leurs vices,<\/em>\r\n<em>elle eut besoin de leurs t\u00eates: elle ne m\u00e9prisait aucun sang.<\/em><\/em><\/strong>\"<\/span><\/pre>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Translated by\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=fJUaAAAAYAAJ&amp;lpg=PA177&amp;ots=u63xxD8cLR&amp;dq=%22revealer%20of%20the%20corruption%20of%20the%20upper%20classes%22&amp;pg=PA177#v=onepage&amp;q=%22revealer%20of%20the%20corruption%20of%20the%20upper%20classes%22&amp;f=false\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">A. T. De Mattos<\/span><\/a> in English as:<\/span><\/p>\n<pre style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\"<em><strong>The Baron de Besenval, the lying and cynical revealer<\/strong><\/em><strong><em>\r\n<em>of the corruption of the upper classes, the fly on the wheel<\/em>\r\n<em>of the puerilities of the expiring old monarchy; that ponderous<\/em>\r\n<em>baron, compromised in the affair of the Bastille, and saved by <\/em>\r\n<em>M. Necker and Mirabeau only because he was a Swiss: the disgrace of it!<\/em>\r\n<em>What had such men to do with such events? <\/em>\r\n<em>When the Revolution had attained its full height, it scornfully <\/em>\r\n<em>abandoned these frivolous apostates from the throne: <\/em>\r\n<em>it had needed their vices, it now needed their heads; <\/em>\r\n<em>it disdained no blood.<\/em><\/em><\/strong>\"<\/span><\/pre>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><em>En guise de conclusion <\/em><\/strong>(as a conclusion), <strong>the 14th of July<\/strong> essentially marked a tragic\u00a0<strong><em>coup d&#8217;\u00e9tat <\/em><\/strong>led by the\u00a0<strong>Duc d&#8217;Orl\u00e9ans<\/strong> and his cohort of the &#8220;<strong>3 SUiSSES<\/strong>&#8220;, and by extension, in favor of the colonial empire of\u00a0<strong><em>la Grande Bretagne<\/em><\/strong><em>,<\/em> which\u00a0was actively prescribing their\u00a0<strong><em>marche\u00a0\u00e0 suivre <\/em><\/strong>(procedure),\u00a0thus deviating the French Revolution off the course of its truly Republican initiators,\u00a0<strong>Lafayette<\/strong> and the pro-American constitution model forces, towards the radical\u00a0<strong><em>trajectoire jacobine<\/em><\/strong>, in the midst of which the French Duke ended up\u00a0losing -quite\u00a0<strong><em>litt\u00e9ralement<\/em><\/strong>&#8211;\u00a0his head. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The\u00a0<em><strong>jacobin <\/strong><\/em>hijacking of the French Revolution in turn\u00a0gave rise to the horrors of\u00a0<em><strong>la Grande Terreur<\/strong><\/em>, and paved the way\u00a0for\u00a0the transformation of\u00a0France into\u00a0<strong><em>un empire colonial <\/em><\/strong>(a colonial empire), at the image of Great Britain, starting with the\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/bow-to-his-supreme-french-excellency-lhomme-providentiel-the-providential-man\/\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Napol\u00e9on Bonaparte<\/span><\/a><\/strong> era, well into the 20th century.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The French today should therefore be proud of the\u00a0<strong>Lafayette&#8217;s<\/strong> <em><strong>20 juin 1789<\/strong><\/em>, when their first\u00a0<strong><em>Assembl\u00e9e Nationale<\/em><\/strong> saw the light, and\u00a0not the tragic date which occurred a few weeks later, which marked\u00a0<em><strong>le\u00a0triomphe temporaire<\/strong><\/em> of the overly\u00a0<strong><em>ambitieux<\/em> <em>Duc d&#8217;Orl\u00e9ans<\/em><\/strong> and his &#8220;<strong>3 SUiSSES<\/strong>&#8221; stooges.<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">* Further reading:<\/span> Its publication was set to coincide with the French Revolution&#8217;s bicentennial anniversary: French historian Olivier Blanc&#8217;s &#8220;<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em>Les Hommes de Londres<\/em><\/span>&#8221; (meaning &#8220;The London Men&#8221;, a pun referring to &#8220;the Shadow Men&#8221; of the French Revolution) is highly recommended<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<img width=\"322\" height=\"350\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2011\/06\/20-juin-1789-serment-jeu-paume-595152-322x350.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image tmp-hide-img\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2011\/06\/20-juin-1789-serment-jeu-paume-595152-322x350.jpg 322w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2011\/06\/20-juin-1789-serment-jeu-paume-595152.jpg 350w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 322px) 100vw, 322px\" \/><p>If you are the sort of person who does not blindly celebrate dates just because others do, here&#8217;s for you a\u00a0r\u00e9sum\u00e9 of\u00a0Bastille Day&#8217;s &#8220;inside story&#8221;:\u00a0Contrary to the prevailing popular belief, &#8220;Bastille Day&#8221; marked a disastrous hijacking of the French Revolution, operated at the behest of an often unsuspected hostile foreign power: Great Britain, whom the&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/why-the-french-must-dump-bastille-day-and-proudly-celebrate-today-instead-june-20th\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":23768,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[10090,10091,10092,10111,10112,10119,10118,10101,10104,9118,10103,10096,10108,10102,10093,10106,10123,10100,10114,10115,10107,10122,10117,10099,10097,10124,10109,10116,10113,10105,10094,10098,9642,10110,10120,10095,10121],"class_list":["post-7488","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vocabulary","tag-14-juillet","tag-14-juillet-1789","tag-20-juin-1789","tag-3-suisses","tag-3suisses","tag-assemblee-nationale","tag-baron-de-besenval","tag-beaumarchais","tag-benjamin-franklin","tag-chateaubriand","tag-constitution-of-the-united-states","tag-defile-du-14-juillet","tag-duc-dorleans","tag-etats-unis","tag-fete-nationale","tag-founding-fathers","tag-gardes-suisses","tag-grande-bretagne","tag-jacobins","tag-la-grande-terreur","tag-lavoisier","tag-louis-xvi","tag-marat","tag-marquis-de-la-fayette","tag-memoires-doutretombe","tag-napoleon-bonaparte","tag-nathaniel-parker-forth","tag-necker","tag-palais-royal","tag-peres-fondateurs","tag-prise-de-la-bastille","tag-revolution-americaine","tag-revolution-francaise","tag-rupert-murdoch","tag-serment-du-jeu-de-paume","tag-storming-of-the-bastille","tag-tennis-court-oath"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7488"}],"version-history":[{"count":127,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7488\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28303,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7488\/revisions\/28303"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}