Bastille+Day

 [|Bastille Day], or more correctly, La Fête Nationale de la France, is a celebration that takes place every year on the 14th of July (le quatorze juillet). It is a national holiday so shops all over the country are closed, the majority of people don't have to go to work and children stay home from school.

In the capital city of Paris, the occasion is marked by a huge military parade along one of its most famous streets, [|L'Avenue de Champs-Elysées], as well as by an impressive air display and a magnificant firework spectacular very late at night at the Eiffel Tower. This selection of youtube videos will give you a better insight into the event...

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__So, what is it all in aid of ?__

Well, Bastille Day commemorates a historical event that happened over 200 years ago in 1789. There was unrest all over France; whilst [|King Louis XVI] and his much-hated Austrian wife Marie-Antoinette lived in luxury at the [|Palais de Versailles], the ordinary person was heavily taxed and suffering from terrible hunger. So, one day in 1789, the Paris mob, angered by food shortages and the soaring price of bread, broke into the royal fortress in the city (known as [|the Bastille]), and set the prisoners free. The [|storming of the Bastille] marked the beginning of [|The French Revolution], a ten year period of bloodshed during which French people fought for freedom and justice. The monarchy was overthrown, the royal family, nobles and aristocrats imprisoned, and the King and Queen executed by [|guillotine!]

media type="custom" key="6526001" align="right"Find out more by listening to this podcast about the history of Bastille Day created by Sunderland's primary MFL team.

These two on-line quizzes will test your knowledge of the French Revolution. Be warned though... they contain some really quite difficult questions, so you might need the help of a grown-up!
 * [[image:FrenchRevLogo.jpg width="210" height="91" align="right" link="http://www.schoolhistory.co.uk/games/fling/frenchrevolution/index.shtml"]][|'Fling the Teacher' French Revolution quiz]
 * [|'Walk the Plank' French Revolution quiz]

 After the [|Revolution] ended, a document was drawn up declaring the rights of all citizens. It stated that 'all men are equal'.

A song called 'La Marseillaise' was also written and this became the country's national anthem.

You can read the words of the song in both French and English [|here on the Euroclub schools website.] You can also listen to it being sung by Mireille Mathieu by selecting track number 30.

 Alternatively, you might like to watch this video footage of the young actress, Pauline Burlet, singing 'La Marseillaise' in the film [|'La vie en rose'], the story of [|Edith Piaf's] tragic life...... media type="custom" key="5825249" align="center"

To mark the centenary of the storming of the Bastille, the [|Eiffel Tower] was constructed 100 years later in 1889.

To mark the bicentenary of the Revolution the [|glass pyramid] that stands in the courtyard of the [|Louvre museum] was commissioned 200 years later in 1989.

220 years after the fall of the Bastille, in July 2009, pupils attending Fairfield's after-school club were invited to celebrate the festival by taking part in a range of activities including...


 * playing [|boules]
 * making a [|tricolore crêpe rosette]
 * finger painting a huge version of the Eiffel Tower in the [|pointillist style] of French artist [|Georges Seurat]
 * <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">learning a traditional folk dance from Britanny called 'La polka des bébés' - instructions below if you want to practise at home
 * <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">using [|Wordle] to produce ICT posters of vocabulary connected with the theme of Revolution
 * <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">sampling French food and drink - baguettes with pâté, brioche, croissants, crêpes with [|nutella], [|boursin] and [|pié d'Angloys] cheeses, galia melon, red grape juice, orangina and perrier water

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">You can view photographs of the children's experiences on the school's learning platform.

<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">Of course, 2009 was also the Eiffel Tower's 120th birthday! Here is an exclusive news report from ITN and a 30 minute video of the fireworks extravanganza courtesy of Paris.fr TV - it's truly spectacular! media type="custom" key="5825435"

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;"> In 2010, pupils attending Fairfield's after-school club celebrated Bastille Day slightly ahead of schedule on Friday 9th July. Similar to last year's festivities, pupils once again had the opportunity to sample French food and drink and compete in a [|boules] tournament. This year, however, pupils also engaged in several games of Bastille Day bingo and attempted to recreate [|Claude Monet's] famous [|Water Lilies] using oil pastels and a water-colour wash.

You can view photographs of this event on the school's learning platform.

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;"> Now that you are an expert on Bastille Day, why not test your knowledge with [|Delphine's quiz on the Euroclub schools website]. All of the answers are contained somewhere in [|this information], so read carefully and have a very > > > > > > > > > >