Bastille Day

Introduction

As we are less than a week from France's national holiday, I wanted to share this note as a follow-up to my début post regarding how public holidays and vacation days work in France. 

It's not just any day...

The first rule of Bastille Day is: French people don't call it Bastille Day!

The second rule of Bastille Day is: French people don't call it Bastille Day!

Here the holiday is formally called « la Fête Nationale » ("the national holiday") or less formally as « quatorze juillet » ("July 14th"). 

Similar to how in America we generally don't call our own national holiday "Independence Day" (except for the movie). Instead we mostly refer to it as "July 4th" or, if you're Toby Keith, "the 4th of July".

Why the confusion?

Basically it's because, contrary to popular belief, the holiday is not meant to commemorate the storming of the Bastille, which took place on July 14th, 1789. 

Instead, the holiday commemorates « la Fête de la Fédération » which took place on July 14th, 1790...to celebrate the 1-year anniversary of the storming of the Bastille. Completely different.

Conclusion

If your company does business in France, it is likely your colleagues, suppliers, or customers will be offline next Monday due to the bank holiday on 14th July. But if you contact them about it, do not make the classic mistake of calling it Bastille Day - now you know better!

For more information regarding the history of la Fête Nationale, here is an english-language explainer from Alliance Française.

For more insights about doing business in France, don't hesitate to schedule a meeting.

Au revoir !