There’s a link in the right hand column on this page to a 5-minute video that condenses the half-hour fireworks display over the medieval walled Cité of Carcassonne on July 14, 2016. That was just a few months after we had moved here and it was quite the introduction to our first Bastille Day in France, except no one here calls it that. Officially it’s “‘la Fête Nationale Française” although we typically hear simply “la Fête Nationale” or even “le quatorze juillet” just as in America we might say “the fourth of July” instead of the more formal “Independence Day”. In researching the history behind this holiday I discovered some fascinating connections between George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Bastille Day.