Bastille Day is the national day of France, which is celebrated on July 14 each year. Known domestically as La Fête Nationale or Le Quatorze Juillet, the holiday actually carries a double historical meaning. It primarily commemorates the 1789 storming of
the Bastille, a medieval fortress symbolizing royal tyranny. Paradoxically, the revolutionaries targeted the building not to free prisoners—only seven were inside—but to seize 250 barrels of gunpowder.
The holiday also marks the 1790 Fête de la Fédération, a peaceful assembly held exactly one year later to celebrate national unity and a new constitutional monarchy.
Today, the occasion is marked by grand traditions. Paris hosts the oldest and largest regular military parade in Europe, marching down the Champs-Élysées beneath a tricolor flyover by the Patrouille de France.
Below is The Patrouille de France with nine Alpha Jets over the Champs-Élysées in Paris in 2017, during the Bastille Day military parade
If you ask a French person about "Bastille Day," they might look at you blankly for a second. The phrase is strictly an English-language term. In France, it is universally referred to as Le 14 Juillet or La Fête Nationale.