Happy Bastille Day!

I just love this painting by Claude Monet. Yes, today is Bastille Day in France and we will get to that as well. But in doing a bit of research via the Musée d'Orsay in the city of Paris (where my dear friend Michael has been at least once from what I have heard and I have had the joy of going 5 times) The Rue Montorgueil, like its twin painting The Rue Saint-Denis, is often thought to be a celebration of July 14. In fact, it was executed on June 30, 1878 on the occasion of the celebration of the end of the World Fair, a demonstration of national and republican enthusiasm a few months only after the great confrontation between republicans and conservators in 1876-1877.

Here is a bit about the holiday with thanks to Wikipedia for the information:

Bastille Day is the French national holiday which is celebrated on 14 July each year. In France, it is formally called La Fête Nationale (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 are held on the morning of 14 July, on the Champs-Élysées avenue in Paris in front of the President of the Republic.

Tonight there will be fireworks and oh what fun they will be but that is for a later posting.