Today the French National Day of July 14, Fête de la Fédération, commemorates the date 225 years ago when citizens of Paris stormed the Bastille prison during the French Revolution, freeing the seven prisoners being held there and branding the memory of “Bastille Day” forevermore. (1789)
As an interesting historical footnote, one of the keys to the Bastille, a fortress that was torn down, now resides in George Washington’s home at Mount Vernon. Lafayette sent the key to him in 1790, paying homage to one of the great leaders of the American revolution, a fellow general whom he fought with in the Continental Army against the British a decade earlier in Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and finally, at Yorktown, Virginia.
Top Photo by Jean-Philippe Gaist; Photo of key from Washington Wife
Thanks! For information about an upcoming book on Bastille keys, check out this link: http://www.bahrnoproducts.com/Bastille_Keys.htm
Ooops! Link to book is at http://www.bahrnoproducts.com/Bastille_Key.htm