# Happy Bastille Day! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 14, 2004, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-bastille-day/255117 "2004-07-14T18:37:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2004, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-bastille-day/255117/1 "2004-07-14T18:37:53Z")
I usually remember it, but being a bit sleep-deprived today, forgot until the announcer on the morning classical radio program explained why they had an all-French program scheduled. How is everyone celebrating? A Napoleon is sounding mighty yummy right now…but alas, none to be found in the Chicago Loop that I know of. ---
**Author:** ![JavaMaven1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/cab0a1/32.png) [@JavaMaven1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JavaMaven1)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2004, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-bastille-day/255117/2 "2004-07-14T19:53:40Z")
Instead of a Napoleon, I’d much rather have a nice, thick slice of Marjolaine instead. Sadly, I don’t think there’s anyone within 20 miles of here would have anything of the sort. Bastille Day shares a very special date with my personal history: the day that the divorce to my first husband became final. I thought that was a pretty good co-winky-dink. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2004, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-bastille-day/255117/3 "2004-07-14T20:43:23Z")
I think I will light candles for poor Madame du Barry and the Princess de Lamballe . . . ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2004, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-bastille-day/255117/4 "2004-07-14T21:08:11Z")
There’s this lovely palace right down the street that’s just _dying_ to be stormed… ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2004, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-bastille-day/255117/5 "2004-07-14T21:29:46Z")
> [@Olentzero](#): > > There’s this lovely palace right down the street that’s just _dying_ to be stormed… Not a half-bad idea: the French could help liberate America twice! ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2004, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-bastille-day/255117/6 "2004-07-14T21:36:43Z")
Thanks, \*\* Eva Luna \*\*. Unfortunately, I didn’t celebrate anything since I’m ill. The more frustrating being that I didn’t watch any firework, something I’m very fond of (on the other hand, I’ve been _hearing_ them for 48 hours non stop). ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2004, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-bastille-day/255117/7 "2004-07-14T21:54:24Z")
There’s a Rush song in here somewhere. Maybe **Coldfire** could stop in to identify it. Anyway, I think perhaps I’ll have some Pastis tonight and complain about my forty hour work week or barricade a road with some tractors in mock sympathy. Actually, some French wine would be easier since I actually have that laying about the house. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2004, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-bastille-day/255117/8 "2004-07-14T22:52:20Z")
> [@ShibbOleth](#): > > Anyway, I think perhaps I’ll have some Pastis tonight and complain about my forty hour work week or barricade a road with some tractors in mock sympathy. . I’m fed up with these ignorant prejudiced statements. We _don’t_ have a forty hour work week. We’ve had a \*\* 35 \*\* hour work week for several years now. Stop accusing us of being workaholic!!! :mad: That’s an undesevered xenophobic slur!!! ---
**Author:** ![swampbear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampbear/32/467_2.png) [@swampbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampbear)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2004, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-bastille-day/255117/9 "2004-07-14T23:40:16Z")
I thought about storming a prison in honor of Bastille Day but the heat index today was 110F, so I stayed inside. I think prison storming should be more of a fall event anyway. **clairobscur** I don’t think **Shib** was trying to slam France. I think he was alluding to the fact that France has a 35 hour work week and he was going to complain about the American 40 hour work week. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2004, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-bastille-day/255117/10 "2004-07-14T23:44:07Z")
> [@swampbear](#): > > **clairobscur** I don’t think **Shib** was trying to slam France… I know…I wasn’t really pissed off, either. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2004, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-bastille-day/255117/11 "2004-07-15T00:04:30Z")
Have fun storming the castle! ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2004, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-bastille-day/255117/12 "2004-07-15T00:36:25Z")
Last night at French class at the Alliance Française we celebrated Bastille Day with some lovely (Australian) wine and sang _La Marseillaise_…Allons enfants de la Patrie, le jour de gloire est arrivé. ---
**Author:** ![Capt\_B.Phart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc29f/32.png) [@Capt\_B.Phart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt_B.Phart)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2004, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-bastille-day/255117/13 "2004-07-15T00:48:41Z")
Heard this story on the radio today:- > [@](#): > > For the first time, British troops marched at the head of France’s Bastille Day parade… …at the front, Captain James de St Jean Pryce on a horse named Agincourt, the battle in which the English under Henry V roundly defeated the French during the 100 Years War. [Le Link](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3895319.stm) ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2004, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-bastille-day/255117/14 "2004-07-15T01:17:43Z")
> [@Cunctator](#): > > Last night at French class at the Alliance Française we celebrated […] and sang _La Marseillaise_ We used to do the same thing in our local Alliance Française. Besides our own, La Marseillaise is the only other anthem I can remember entirely. Congratulations to the French. ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2004, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-bastille-day/255117/15 "2004-07-15T01:19:36Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > Stop accusing us of being workaholic!!! :mad: That’s an undesevered xenophobic slur!!! Well, sorry, but my particular French friends are workaholics, the whole darn extended family of them. They have a family business near Fontainebleau, and it’s the only way they’ve managed to keep it afloat during the last couple of economic downturns. Poor Laurent leaves home by 8 am and gets home after 9 pm. His wife hates it, and she and I would both love it if you went to his office and told him how un-Frenchly he is behaving. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2004, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-bastille-day/255117/16 "2004-07-15T03:38:26Z")
According to Jerry Pournelle (and I have no reason to doubt him on this), when teh Bastille was stormed it contained 8 people. [http://www.jerrypournelle.com/view/view318.html](http://www.jerrypournelle.com/view/view318.html) (scroll down) Brian ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2004, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-bastille-day/255117/17 "2004-07-15T03:40:17Z")
\*8 prisoners, that is ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2004, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-bastille-day/255117/18 "2004-07-15T12:37:20Z")
> [@swampbear](#): > > I thought about storming a prison in honor of Bastille Day but the heat index today was 110F, so I stayed inside. I think prison storming should be more of a fall event anyway. > > **clairobscur** I don’t think **Shib** was trying to slam France. I think he was alluding to the fact that France has a 35 hour work week and he was going to complain about the American 40 hour work week. Yes, and I was taking the piss anyway as I have worked with many actual workaholic (or at least very hard working) French when I lived and worked in Geneva and Frankfurt. Everyone knows that all generalizations are untrue. 🙂 BTW, I was wholly unable to find pastis at any bars in my area, or even a bartender who knew what pastis is. Freaking yokels. Maybe in Tampa. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2004, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-bastille-day/255117/19 "2004-07-15T12:56:23Z")
> [@Capt B. Phart](#): > > Heard this story on the radio today:- > > For the first time, British troops marched at the head of France’s Bastille Day parade… …at the front, Captain James de St Jean Pryce on a horse named Agincourt, the battle in which the English under Henry V roundly defeated the French during the 100 Years War. > > [Le Link](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3895319.stm) Actually I find quite ironical too that troops such as the \*\* Kings \*\* Troop of the \*\* Royal \*\* Horse Artillery and the \*\* Household \*\* Cavalry are parading on Bastille day. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2004, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-bastille-day/255117/20 "2004-07-15T13:01:43Z")
> [@N9IWP](#): > > According to Jerry Pournelle (and I have no reason to doubt him on this), when teh Bastille was stormed it contained 8 people. > > [http://www.jerrypournelle.com/view/view318.html](http://www.jerrypournelle.com/view/view318.html) (scroll down) > > Brian I don’t remember the exact number, but indeed it was something like that. And none of them was detained for political reasons. Besides, the Bastille was to be demolished soon. It was only a symbol (and weapons were kept there, which isn’t the last reason explaining why the Bastille was stormed).