 "Leclerc tanks drive down the Champs-Elysees avenue during the Bastille Day parade, in Paris. AP")
France is commemorating Bastille Day, its most important holiday. On Monday, 7,000 people marched on horseback or in armoured vehicles along the cobblestones of Paris’ most renowned boulevard, the Champs-Elysees. There are also plans for nationwide celebrations and pageants.
Why Bastille Day is a big deal
On July 14, 1789, Parisians stormed the Bastille castle and jail, sparking the French Revolution and overthrowing the monarchy. In the two centuries thereafter, France has seen Napoleon’s empire grow and fall, as well as additional revolutions and two world wars, before settling into today’s Fifth Republic, which was created in 1958.
Bastille Day has become a watershed occasion in modern France, commemorating democratic liberties and national pride via a blend of revolutionary zeal and military power.
The Paris procession beneath the Arc de Triomphe so charmed visiting US President Donald Trump in 2017, that he decided to conduct his own celebration this year.