Liberte! Egalite! Fraternite! & a Happy Bastille Day from NYLI !

The French Revolution (1789) was somewhat inspired by the Spirit of 1776, and so it’s fitting that the French National Holiday of Bastille Day (July 14th) occurs a week or two after our own country’s July 4th celebrations…

And, bien sur!, the American Revolution’s success depended in part on French assistance. Ben Franklin arrived in Paris in December 1776 as the first official representative of the United States in France. Franklin worked to secure secret shipments of French supplies. In 1778, the relationship between France and the United States was formalized with the Treaty of Alliance. Franklin was treated as a celebrity by the French, and his habit of wearing a backwoodsman’s fur cap rather than the traditional wig led many Parisians to consider him the perfect example of Rosseau’s “Noble Savage!”

While New York City is home to that famous gift from the French — the Statue of Liberty and has more than one street named for Lafayette, it would be hard to dispute that Louisiana, and New Orleans in particularly, is the most French place within the United States.

So while many Americans admire French fashions and that certain je ne sais quoi of the Gallic people, it’s interesting to reflect that the early origins of modern French Republic were rooted in an admiration of our own Spirit of ’76!