And to Our Friends in France

A couple previous Bastille Day posts:

June 14 2020 [commenting on July 14, 2019's disaster]

We'll return to our usual graphic and contemplate whether to memory-hole last year's embarrassment.*

See you next month!
*July 15, 2019
An Apology To Our French Speaking Friends on the Day After Bastille Day
This is embarrassing.
I mislabeled a painting.
To note yesterday's holiday the blog went with one of Monet's Festival of 30 June 1878 paintings.
The date isn't the problem, I wanted a pic of the tri-color and despite it not representing a Bastille Day scene, thought that with the label folks would understand that we understood.
Ahem.

Claude Monet, Rue Montorgueil, Paris, Festival of 30 June 1878.

This morning I looked at the painting and wondered why it seemed so dark so I went to the website of the Musée d'Orsay and "ah crap". 

That's the Rue St. Denis, not the Rue Montorgueil and it hangs at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen. 

It's the fraternal twin of the pic I was going for:

Which is at the Musée d'Orsay.

Someone should let the The Paris Review know as well.

However, the fact they got it wrong doesn't matter, we are responsible for our little corner of the internet.

The Musée d'Orsay adds insult to injury by starting their description with:

The Rue Montorgueil, like its twin painting The Rue Saint-Denis (Rouen, musée des Beaux-arts), is often thought to depict a 14 July celebration. In fact it was painted on 30 June 1878 for a festival declared that year by the government celebrating "peace and work". This was one of the events organised for the third Universal Exhibition in Paris a few weeks after it opened, and intended to be a symbol of France’s recovery after the defeat of 1870. As well as demonstrating nationalist enthusiasm, the celebrations of 30 June 1878 were also an opportunity to strengthen the position of the Republican regime, still fragile only a few months after the major confrontations of 1876-1877 between its supporters and the conservatives. It was only two years later, in 1880, that 14 July was designated the French National Day.....

Non! We knew it wasn't 14 July, it's that we messed up the darn paintings.
Easier to go with the little girl and her tri-color.
back in a month. 

And July 14, 2025: 

"France to quicken defense-spending boost in bid to be ‘feared’"

Umlauts. Fräncë needs umlauts if they truly intend to inspire dread wherever they turn their Gallic gaze.*

From DefenseNews, Bastille Day, 2025:

 

French military vehicles stand in formation for the annual Bastille Day military parade on the 

Champs-Elysees Avenue with the Arc de Triomphe in the background in Paris on July 14, 2025. 

France will accelerate a hike in defense spending to reach €64 billion (US$75 billion) in 2027, three years earlier than planned, President Emmanuel Macron told troops and military brass ahead of Bastille Day celebrations on July 14.

In the face of the greatest threat to freedom since 1945, France needs to step up, the president said in his traditional speech at the Armed Forces Ministry in Paris the evening before the national holiday. Macron said Europe must be ready to face a permanent Russian threat on its borders, from the Caucasus to the Arctic....

...MUCH MORE
*From January 2014's "After Car Attacked By Paris Taxi Drivers, Uber to Toughen Image With Umlauts ": 

In a move designed to make Uber seem more "bad-assed and scary in a quasi-heavy-metal manner," the Goldman Sachs, Menlo Ventures and Bezos Expeditions-backed company officially changed it's name to Über on  Monday.

"Much like Mötley Crüe and Motörhead, Über is not to be messed with," said founder Gärrëtt Cämp, né Camp...

"Ödërïnt, düm mëtüänt" (Let them hate so long as they fear)