In celebration of the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille fortress-prison which took place on July 14, 1789, along with the start of the French Revolution, the French take off to enjoy the celebration of the day.

The festivities of the day are set off by a military parade which combines infantry troops, motorized troops, and an aircraft of an aerobatics team flying above. The parade, being the oldest and largest regular military parade in the world, has taken place on the morning of July 14^th every year in Paris since 1880. It has become customary to invite units of France’s allies to the parade.

While the festivities of the day come to an end, the celebration is far from over. Following the military parade, the night becomes lit with a series of red, white and blue fireworks. The firework celebration explodes above the Eiffel Tower, sparking the beginning of the night’s festivities.

The Paris fire stations will then traditionally hold their bals des pompiers, meaning firemen’s balls, entertaining the idea to party into the night. It is now time to drink and dance in merriment.

Get ready to experience the history of this land first hand. Come prepared to establish unforgettable memories as you help to bring these festivities to life when traveling to France.

George Seurat’s famous pointillist masterpiece, “Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte,” is set on an island in the Seine.

According to his will, Napoleon, who died in 1821, wished to be buried on the banks of the Seine. His request was not granted.

Dredging in the 1960s mostly eliminated tidal bores on the river, known as le mascaret.

The Parisii tribe’s motto can still be found today on the Paris coat of arms. It reads “Fluctuat nec mergitur,” which is Latin for “She is tossed by the waves but is not sunk.”

The American steamboat mogul Robert Fulton, in a move known as “Fulton’s Folly,” tried to launch a steamboat in the Seine River in 1803. It sank because the engine was too heavy. He would go on to engineer many successful vessels in the United States.

In ancient times the Seine was known by the Latin name Sequana, meaning “sacred river.”

The City of Light shines bright in the reflection of the Seine. Views of Paris from the river include Notre Dame Cathedral, the Louvre Museum and the Eiffel Tower. Travelers can enjoy a candlelit dinner at a Parisian café or take in a world-class cabaret show.

Float gently down the River Seine, passing through suburban Paris, to discover the town of Conflans. Nearby, quaint Auvers-Sur-Oise is the inspirational town that Vincent Van Gogh called home. Those with an affinity for French history may want to visit nearby Château de Malmaison, the elaborately decorated estate of Napoleon and Josephine Bonaparte. Further downstream, the riverside town of Vernon features the magnificent Bizy Castle and the immaculate gardens at Claude Monet’s country house.

Rouen, the jewel of medival France, is next. On the right bank, half-timbered, glazed-tiled houses and ancient architecture line the streets, prompting many to refer to Rouen as ville-musee, or museum town. Make time to admire the city’s Astronomical Clock and the Rouen Cathedral. The Cathedral was once the tallest building in the world and inspired an impressive series of Claude Monet’s paintings.

A short jaunt from the river, the historic Normandy Beaches pay reverent homage to the soldiers who fought so valiantly on these shores during World War II. The surrounding countryside is ripe with fragrant fruit and flowers. Travelers can delight in the region’s delectable French cuisine and meal-capping apple brandy.

Continuing down the Seine, Les Andelys presents the dramatic visage of Château Gaillard. Built by England’s King Richard the Lionheart in 1196, the château is truly a masterpiece of medieval military architecture.

The ancient Celtic Parisii tribe inhabited modern-day Paris near the Seine as early as 250 B.C. They excelled in navigation and trading all the way down to the Mediterranean Sea, building quays and tow paths along the banks. The Romans conquered the Paris basin in 52 B.C., leaving a permanent settlement on the left bank of the Seine called Lutetia, and later, Lutèce. Over the course of the following centuries, the city eventually known as Paris became prosperous, boasting a forum, palaces, baths, temples and an amphitheatre. After the collapse of the Roman Empire, Paris was largely abandoned by its inhabitants and was little more than a ghost town.

While the Seine itself is a peaceful river with a gentle, meandering flow, it has set the stage for a number of tumultuous events in the history of France. In 885 A.D., the Vikings used the Seine to invade France, rowing hundreds of longboats and an army 40,000-strong inland to the heart of the country. And in the height of the Middle Ages, Joan of Arc was martyred in the shoreline city of Rouen after leading the French army in several important victories in the Hundred Years’ War. The Seine was a critical crossing in World War II, and the tragic final resting place of many victims of the Paris Massacre in 1961.

In recent years, the Seine River has been the subject of major conservation efforts in France dubbed “Operation Clean Seine.” In 1991, the banks of the Seine in Paris—the Rive Gauche and Rive Droite—were added to United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization’s list of World Heritage Sites in Europe.

The Seine River springs from picturesque Burgundy, France. It flows through the heart of “Sweet Paree” before threading its way through the orchards and fields-a-bloom in Normandy. Cruising along these waters combines the best of urban and rural French culture, from the burlesque cabarets of Paris to the sleepy medieval towns along the shoreline, and the breathtaking scenery in between. Historians will enjoy a journey back in time along the Seine, with glimpses into antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the most critical moments of World War II. Whether travelers possess an appreciation of the arts and fine wine, or rolling hills and time-tested architecture, the gentle roll of the River Seine provides a relaxing rhythm to any French discovery.

Fast Facts:

Country: France
Source: Burgundy, France
Mouth: The English Channel
Length: 482 miles

One of the most striking sights in Avignon is the truncated Bridge of Saint Bénézet, which juts out into the Rhône for four elegant spans then abruptly ends mid-river like a forgotten artwork.  It may no longer have practical use today, but the bridge is one of the most beloved structures in France, and surrounded by charming legend.

Its story begins in the Middle Ages, when a shepherd boy named Bénézet declared that he had been told by angels to build a span across the mighty river.  Locals scoffed, but Bénézet proved that God was on his side by lifting a giant rock above his head and tossing it onto the riverbank to lay the first foundation stone.  Eight years later, in 1185, the 2700-feet-long bridge was completed, with 22 arches running from the Papal enclave of Avignon to the village of Villeneuve-lès-Avignon.

Bénézet became a local hero and after his death he was declared a saint and buried in a small chapel that can still be visited on the riverbank.  For centuries, the structure enjoyed enormous strategic importance as the only crossing between Lyon and the Mediterranean, and it was immortalized in a popular French nursery rhyme, Sur le Pont d’Avignon.  But the bridge created by religion was eventually ruined by it.  In the 1600s, Avignon was still officially controlled by the Pope, but the faraway Vatican no longer had the funds to cover repairs when the bridge was weakened by floods.

The French royalty, which had long resented the Papal presence within France, refused to help out.  The bridge had been teetering dangerously for years when around 1660 it finally collapsed, leaving the poetic stump we see today.

The Popes of Avignon certainly knew how to throw a party. When Clement VI celebrated his ascension to the Pontiff’s office in 1342, the surrounding farms were decimated for the feast: Records show that for this single-day extravaganza, the kitchens prepared 118 roast oxen, 1023 sheep, 914 lambs, 7428 chickens, 1195 geese, 3043 fowl, 39,980 eggs, 6000 pounds of almonds, 50,000 tarts and 90,000 loaves of bread.  Several hundred of the most important guests gathered in the Banquet Hall for the most elaborate meal.  Naturally, the medieval dining arrangements were far different from today’s.  Food did not arrive in courses: The dishes were laid out on trestle tables before the guests arrived for an impressive visual effect, and diners had to choose from whatever they could reach from their assigned seat.  Medieval cooks loved to make the food itself brightly colorful and even patterned, using contrasting dyes made from herbs, flowers, saffron and gold leaf, and finishing with pomegranate seeds to resemble rubies.  The meal was a carnivore’s paradise, with beast after beast arriving from the kitchen.  The meat-carving was a prestigious, noble skill, and was often performed by the Pope himself, using an ivory-handled knife; the Pope’s own portion would then be passed under a narwhal’s horn, which was thought to detect poison.  There were no individual plates at that time: Each guest lay his meat on a thick slice of bread called a trench, which soaked up the juices and would be devoured in turn.  The only eating utensil was a knife, so well-mannered diners used only their thumb and two first fingers to eat, with the pinky kept clean to dip into the salt.  And there were no napkins: Guests would wipe their hands on the table clots.  The Papal feast ended with desserts highly prized in the Middle Ages – wafers, marzipan treats, jams and candied fruit, all prepared within the palace itself.

As the world’s largest Gothic castle, the Papal Palace dominates Avignon more completely than the Eiffel Tower does Paris.  But awe-inspiring as the edifice is, we must use a little imagination today to picture the interior in its medieval heyday, when it was home for nearly a century to nine Pontiffs.  Like almost all Gothic structures in Europe, the palace’s interior has been slowly stripped of decoration and furniture, so today the bare stone walls give us the impression that the residents existed in austere, monastic self-denial.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

The medieval Popes, who had abandoned Rome because of its political instability, enjoyed a level of sensual luxury that many of the faithful considered scandalous, thus earning their stay in Avignon the nickname “the Babylonian Exile.”  We should perhaps think of the Papal Palace as the Las Vegas of the Middle Ages, with state-of-the art décor designed purely to delight and impress its occupants.  Every floor gleamed with brilliant marble tiles.  Elaborate tapestries covered the walls, and statues lined the corridors.  In the Grand Tinel, or Banquet Hall, (Room 11), the ceiling was once hung with purple velvet studded with solid gold stars in order to evoke the night sky.

Luckily for us, two rooms in the palace still contain remnants of their original decoration.  In the Pope’s Bedroom (Room 15), every inch of wall space and ceiling is covered with a tempura mural of a forest, the delicate leaves hiding colorful wildlife; the painted birds were echoed in reality, as the Popes loved to keep caged nightingales to serenade them to sleep. The adjoining Stag Room (Room 16) was once Clement VI’s study, and its walls are covered with hunting scenes; for good measure, a unicorn and dragon frolic in the woods.

These miraculous survivals were only discovered in 1906; they had been painted over by French soldiers when the palace was used as a military barracks in the 19th century, an act of vandalism that accidentally preserved them.  The subsequent layers were simply scraped away.

From one French city to the next, our travels now take us to Avignon, France! It’s time to revel in the romance of this gorgeous French city, while taking in the historic significance of the region.

During our Southern France tour, we’ll visit the historic centre of Avignon, taking in such impressive sights as the Palace of Popes. For those in need of retail therapy, you can fill up on a special brand of authentic French souvenirs at an outdoor market at St Benezet Bridge. We can picnic along the Rhone River and drink a glass of the finest French wine. Or, we could take in the impromptu shows and costumed gaiety at the annual International Theater Festival!

Pack your bags, and let’s embark on an unforgettable French vacation.

Whether you’re looking to see the history of Catholic religion first hand, lavish in the splendor of the white walled city, or cruise the majestic Rhone, you’re sure to remember every last detail of your trip to Avignon!

A vacation to Paris is not complete unless it includes guided sightseeing of all the famous landmarks and a bird’s-eye view of the city from the second floor of the Eiffel Tower.  When the sun goes down, Paris magically transforms into the “City of Light.” The Eiffel Tower illuminates the sky while revelers exalt in palate-pleasing French cuisine, impeccable wine, and a dazzling nightlife.