French Politics

I can make French jokes (but not today), and we will just because even though we have Trump it doesn't prevent anyone from poking fun at other countries.

edited 4th Jul '17 1:25:37 PM by firewriter

The Bastille doesn't exist anymore.

Well, I'll settle for a broom closet, then.

I do have to admit to be experiencing some kind of perverse anticipation of Trump's visit to know how he will ridicule himself while here (or how Macron will make him). Maybe we could start betting.

I know, I did make US jokes even when you had Obama and we had angry Tyrion Lannister.

Brain says Macron won't do anything because it won't serve him in any way - he wants to appear as a younger, male Merkel to the world, not as a prankster. Heart says that he knows that him next to Trump is the best way to boost his charisma. Kind of like making your meal look better by taking a picture of it and placing the picture next to a plate of vomit.

edited 4th Jul '17 1:57:56 PM by Julep

@The USA owing their independence to France:

LAFAYETTE!

Who went on to have an illustrious career in France, despite making enemies left and right (figuratively and literally: he was a Constitutional Monarchist in a country swinging from Regicidal Mania to Absolute Royalism).

Lafayette is an all-around cool guy. And a bit of a clutz

Jefferson here does a great job summing up what France did for the independence movement:

Also, the Statue of Liberty is a gift from France!

edited 4th Jul '17 2:23:28 PM by TheHandle

So I'll be in Paris (late) on Bastille Day. On a scale of one to Saint Paddy's, how bad are the crowds?

It depends where you are. The crowd around the military parade is thick enough that you probably have zero chance to see anything unless you get in position very early in the morning (and then again, I'm not sure that's possible anymore with all the safety measures against terrorism). Most of the rest of the day should be normal enough. You may want to attend the firework show on the Eiffel Tower, which is usually quite impressive. The crowd will be thick there as well but you can still enjoy the show from a distance. Be prepared for plenty of security checks and encountering a lot of police officers as well.

Why is there a military parade on Bastille day?

Because Napoleon, probably.

Nope, that celebration was suppressed during his reign (and that of Napoleon III). The nationalist and militaristic bend dates from the Franco-Prussian war of 1870.

But didn't we lose this one?

It started 10 years later to show that the army was ready to fight again, in 1880.

And then they kept gritting their teeth until 1914 when the showdown finally happened. Home by Christmas.

It's one of them traditions that people keep doing despite not knowing why and it not making sense on the face of it, I guess. I mean, the Bastille Day should be about celebrating the accountability of men of power and the establishment of Rule Of Law, overriding absolutism. Which, I hear, wasn't what the actual taking of the Bastille was about, there were only four prisoners in there or such, it was about grabbing guns. But that's what the mythologized version taught in Civil Religion classes is about, so that's what the holiday should be about too. IMHO, as a filthy foreigner.

edited 6th Jul '17 2:53:22 PM by TheHandle

They did come home by Christmas though.

...Four years behind schedule.

Links with non-ASCII characters still don't work right.

edited 6th Jul '17 11:15:27 PM by Khudzlin

Google Éducation Civique.

The fun thing about Bastille day is that it took some time to get its status as National Day. I think that, for most of the 19th century, it was simply not celebrated (which makes sense, as France was an Empire or Monarchy for most of this century anyway). Then when it was decided to have a national celebration, this date was chosen as a something most people could agree on as significant to Republic (for a while there were celebrations then, but not quite official). After that, Tradition took hold. I think a government deciding to abolish the military parade would suffer a heavy backlash.

But muh Taxpayer Money!

Being French, I could replace the mangled character easily. But it can help others

How much do those parades cost anyway?

We paid for all these tanks / uniforms / etc. anyway, may as well put them to good use.

I am suddenly very concerned that Trump is going to demand these on national holidays in the USA too.

He'd probably gold-plate everything if he could get away with it too.

Shit, is it even possible to gold-plate a tank?

If you want a tank as heavy as the Maus but in a nice compact package.

Easy, unless you want the tank to be able to move.