Sacré-Cœur Tricolore
Reposting this one today in solidarity with the people of Paris in this difficult time. This one hits me particularly close to home because of my own familiarity with the city, a place I have lived in in the past, and which I have continued to visit since. I have eaten in restaurants like these, walked these streets, and even seen concerts in the Bataclan itself. I know that tragedies happen all over the world every day, but when something touches so closely on the familiar – particularly in this great city that has such history (howsoever troubled and complex) in inspiring humankind towards freedom, beauty, and greater things – it amplifies and underlines the tragedy, painting everything with that melancholic brush.
Here's what I wrote when I first posted this image of mine, back on 14 July 2012, still eerily fitting on this particular day:
"Bonne Fête Nationale, tout le monde! Happy Bastille Day, everyone! Here's a little tricolore triptych I put together in honor of the occasion.
Bastille Day is the name given in English-speaking countries to the French National Day, which is celebrated on the 14th of July each year. In France, it is formally called La Fête Nationale (The National Celebration) and commonly Le quatorze juillet (the fourteenth of July). It commemorates the 1790 Fête de la Fédération, held on the first anniversary of the storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789; the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille fortress-prison was seen as a symbol of the uprising of the modern nation, and of the reconciliation of all the French inside the constitutional monarchy which preceded the First Republic, during the French Revolution. Festivities and official ceremonies are held all over France. The oldest and largest regular military parade in Europe is held on the morning of 14 July, on the Champs-Élysées avenue in Paris in front of the President of the Republic, French officials and foreign guests.
The Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Paris, commonly known as Sacré-Cœur Basilica (French: Basilique du Sacré-Cœur, pronounced [sakʁe kœʁ]), is a Roman Catholic church and minor basilica, dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, in Paris, France. A popular landmark, the basilica is located at the summit of the butte Montmartre, the highest point in the city. Sacré-Cœur is a double monument, political and cultural, both a national penance for the supposed excesses of the Second Empire and socialist Paris Commune of 1871 crowning its most rebellious neighborhood, and an embodiment of conservative moral order, publicly dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which was an increasingly popular vision of a loving and sympathetic Christ. The Sacré-Cœur Basilica was designed by Paul Abadie. Construction began in 1875 and was finished in 1914. It was consecrated after the end of World War I in 1919. The inspiration for Sacré Cœur's design originated in the wake of the division in French society that arose in the decades following the French Revolution, between devout Catholics and legitimist royalists on one side, and democrats, secularists, socialists and radicals on the other. This schism became particularly pronounced after the Franco-Prussian War and the ensuing uprising of the Paris Commune of 1870-71. [from Wikipedia]
So my image is a conscious paean to both the revolutionary spirit and the rights of man on the one hand, and to national and international renewal in the wake of such struggles on the other. Here's to liberté, égalité, et fraternité in today's world -- preferably without the same levels of bloodshed the world has so often seen."
Sacré-Cœur Tricolore
Reposting this one today in solidarity with the people of Paris in this difficult time. This one hits me particularly close to home because of my own familiarity with the city, a place I have lived in in the past, and which I have continued to visit since. I have eaten in restaurants like these, walked these streets, and even seen concerts in the Bataclan itself. I know that tragedies happen all over the world every day, but when something touches so closely on the familiar – particularly in this great city that has such history (howsoever troubled and complex) in inspiring humankind towards freedom, beauty, and greater things – it amplifies and underlines the tragedy, painting everything with that melancholic brush.
Here's what I wrote when I first posted this image of mine, back on 14 July 2012, still eerily fitting on this particular day:
"Bonne Fête Nationale, tout le monde! Happy Bastille Day, everyone! Here's a little tricolore triptych I put together in honor of the occasion.
Bastille Day is the name given in English-speaking countries to the French National Day, which is celebrated on the 14th of July each year. In France, it is formally called La Fête Nationale (The National Celebration) and commonly Le quatorze juillet (the fourteenth of July). It commemorates the 1790 Fête de la Fédération, held on the first anniversary of the storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789; the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille fortress-prison was seen as a symbol of the uprising of the modern nation, and of the reconciliation of all the French inside the constitutional monarchy which preceded the First Republic, during the French Revolution. Festivities and official ceremonies are held all over France. The oldest and largest regular military parade in Europe is held on the morning of 14 July, on the Champs-Élysées avenue in Paris in front of the President of the Republic, French officials and foreign guests.
The Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Paris, commonly known as Sacré-Cœur Basilica (French: Basilique du Sacré-Cœur, pronounced [sakʁe kœʁ]), is a Roman Catholic church and minor basilica, dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, in Paris, France. A popular landmark, the basilica is located at the summit of the butte Montmartre, the highest point in the city. Sacré-Cœur is a double monument, political and cultural, both a national penance for the supposed excesses of the Second Empire and socialist Paris Commune of 1871 crowning its most rebellious neighborhood, and an embodiment of conservative moral order, publicly dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which was an increasingly popular vision of a loving and sympathetic Christ. The Sacré-Cœur Basilica was designed by Paul Abadie. Construction began in 1875 and was finished in 1914. It was consecrated after the end of World War I in 1919. The inspiration for Sacré Cœur's design originated in the wake of the division in French society that arose in the decades following the French Revolution, between devout Catholics and legitimist royalists on one side, and democrats, secularists, socialists and radicals on the other. This schism became particularly pronounced after the Franco-Prussian War and the ensuing uprising of the Paris Commune of 1870-71. [from Wikipedia]
So my image is a conscious paean to both the revolutionary spirit and the rights of man on the one hand, and to national and international renewal in the wake of such struggles on the other. Here's to liberté, égalité, et fraternité in today's world -- preferably without the same levels of bloodshed the world has so often seen."