Le 14 Juillet

Le quatorze Juillet ('ka - torz - ju - ee - yay'), a.k.a. Bastille Day, is the National French Holiday. On that day in 1789, citizens took the Bastille prison, a symbol of monarchy and despotic power. The storming of the Bastille came to symbolize liberty, democracy, and the fight against oppression. In the collective mind, the picture that probably best represents this moment is Eugène Delacroix's "La Liberté guidant le peuple" (Liberty guiding the People), which is under display at the Louvre, in Paris: