Bastille Day

[Padraig]

Anyone doing anything special? Like, go to a rally?...read a book?

[vinteuil]

... I might re-read Burke's 'Reflections on the Revolution in France' to remind myself of how prescient he was of the ghastly consequences of that ill-thought-out, inhuman Revolution...

And there is whole pile of books up in the loft concerning the French Revolution, the Terror, and Napoleonic Europe which I could dust down and look at again...

But it's lovely and warm - a stroll to the river with a nice chilled bottle sounds a more attractive prospect

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I shall be making a scale model of the building from bananas, strawberries, apples and melons.


It'll be a Fruit Bastille.

[teamsaint]

I shall be making a scale model of the building from bananas, strawberries, apples and melons.


It'll be a Fruit Bastille.

Groan.

You could be sent there for less.

Don't chew ever have a day off the puns?

[Padraig]

I shall be making a scale model of the building from bananas, strawberries, apples and melons.


It'll be a Fruit Bastille.

Topped with mock cream, à la vinteuil?

[johncorrigan]

Anyone doing anything special? Like, go to a rally?...read a book?

Watching the Tour, Padraig, in the company of the incomparable Liggett and Sherwen. No better way, in my opinion, to celebrate Bastille Day...vive la difference!

[Stunsworth]

I'm assuming you people are referring to the French Fete Nationale (sorry, no accents on this keyboard).

[richardfinegold]

Well, I'm in Paris. We will go to the Champs-Elyses in the AM, and actually have a cooking class scheduled for the afternoon. Sunday I will be doing a narrated walking tour on the Revolution.
The best book about the event is A Tale Of Two Cities

[Petrushka]

I'm currently reading General Sir Edward Spears' memoir of the fall of France in 1940, Assignment to Catastrophe.

Not exactly France's finest hour but a fascinating insider view of this disaster.

[vinteuil]

The best book about the event is A Tale Of Two Cities

.





... I think you should also dip in to Burke, Carlyle, Michelet - as well as some of the more recent writers

[Serial_Apologist]

A book I was given as a child explained the end of the Bastille thus.

A poor, small boy steals a currant bun from a baker's shop, and is arrested and found guilty of theft and thrown into the Bastille. But the bun is a magic bun and tells the little boy that he can have two wishes for rescuing him from the evil baker. The boy, on seeing the gaolers going about their business, wishes that they all become mice, which they do. He then wishes that the Bastille be transformed into a huge Emmenthaler cheese, whereupon the screws which have become mice start feasting on it until there is soon nothing left. The prisoners all escape, including the little boy, and all live happily ever after, though I can't remember what happens to the currant bun...

[Nick Armstrong]

Well, I'm in Paris. We will go to the Champs-Elyses in the AM, and actually have a cooking class scheduled for the afternoon. Sunday I will be doing a narrated walking tour on the Revolution.

Great news Richard. No difficulties from France's latterday revolting workers, mounting burning barricades near Calais? An uneventful and pleasant Eurostar ride, I hope?

Worth trying to catch the flypasts and fireworks on Tuesday, you and your crew.

Can't remember where you're staying there... ?

[Nick Armstrong]

I shall be making a scale model of the building from bananas, strawberries, apples and melons.


It'll be a Fruit Bastille.

There's a tumbril with your name on it for that one, mon brave!

[Richard Tarleton]

(sorry, no accents on this keyboard).

Stunsworth, you create them thus - by holding down ALT while keying in the appropriate 3 or 4 digit combination.

[Roehre]

I'm currently reading General Sir Edward Spears' memoir of the fall of France in 1940, Assignment to Catastrophe.

Not exactly France's finest hour but a fascinating insider view of this disaster.

Petrushka, It's interesting to compare Spears' memoir with those by Général André Beaufre's 1940. The Fall of France. (translation Desmond Flower, preface Liddell Hart), another insider view. Recommended.

And Quatorze Juillet I'll start with singing Allons Enfants de la Patrie...(. poor neighbours)