To our teammates Julien Cressant, Laurent Esquier, Michel Kemerac, Bert Pace, and our other colleagues and friends of the French persuasion (especially LV's Christine Belanger and Bruno Trouble), our best wishes on the occasion of your Fête Nationale or national holiday.

Commonly known, at least in English, as Bastille Day, it commemorates the 1790 Fête de la Fédération, held on the first anniversary of the storming of the Bastille prison on 14 July 1789. The Fête de la Fédération was seen as a symbol of the uprising of the modern French "nation", and of the reconciliation of all the French inside the constitutional monarchy which preceded the First Republic, during the French Revolution. [Source: Answers.com and Wikipedia]

So, today put the World Cup behind you. Vive La France!

(Someday you have to tell us what makes M. Zidane tick.)

And with proof-reading thanks to Pierre Orphanidis, the hybrid if not well-bred (says he 50% Gaulic) webmaster of the popular Valencia Sailing blog.


Claude Monet's Rue Montorgueil immortalised
the June 1878 celebration in Paris organized
to honour the Republic. Legislation passed
in 1880 made 14 July the official, national
holiday. By then, three defenses of the
America's Cup had taken place.