Hey Geograpeeps.
France was such a fun episode to film
Few side notes, Jaques Brel was actually Belgen
Marie Curie although naturalized as a French Citizen, was actually Polish.
I totally butchered Christian Dior's last name
And in the demographics graphics, I said 5% instead of 3% for the black population.
However some people argue that the actual numbers could actually be more that 5% so I guess it kinda works out.
Anyway France has a lot when it comes to symbolism and we have so much to discuss.
So, without further ado!
♫ Flag Friday Intro ♫
Now the French Flag may only have 3 colors
But there's a lot of backstory of how it became that way
First of all, the flag is a tricolor flag of 3 vertical bands of blue, white, and red.
Now there are many many interpretations behind these colors
Any however what we can start with is the fact that blue, white, and red are generally associated with Republicanism or Democracy.
Basically the flag came out of conflict
Long story short, the French Revolution.
But before we even get into that
Prerevolution France used a lot of white
It was a very popular color, they loved it
It all started with Joan of Arc and then made popular by kings in the 16 ceutury.
As it was kinda seen as like a reconciliation color between the Protestants and the Catholics.
For the longest time they were under the white royal Fleur de Lis flag
The colors red and blue are based off the flags of Paris, which are based off of the two saints.
Blue for St. Martin, Bishop of tours who had some story about him sharing part of his cloak with a beggar.
And Red for Martyr St. Denis, Bishop of Paris who is typically displayed holding his own head
When the revolutionaries wanted to make a flag they didn't want to just use the blue and red from the Paris flag.
But they wanted to add the royal white in between them to imply the submission of the monarchy under the people as a way to nationalize the revolution.
Since 1794 the flag kinda stuck
Except for those weird years when Napoleon was exilied twice
And the burbons tried to make a come back
And then the July revolution of 1830 happened
And then it came back since then.
Henri, count of Chambord one of the last descendants of the royal family, almost tried to change the flag as he almost became the king but then it was too late... it was over, he didn't have a chance.
Now France technically has two unofficial national emblems that were adopted in the early 20th century.
Both of them contain Fasces
However one is all golden, surrounded by leaves.
With a shield and the letters R and F layered onto of eachother
The Republic of France
And the second is similar however placed on a blue facade surrounded by a highly detailed golden chain relic with golden disks all tied at the bottem by three wreaths of loral and oak
Now keep in mind they had a lot of flag and emblem swiches ever since the Frankish Kingdom.
However blue, white, and the fleur de lis are typically portrayed in a lot of them.
Fun little sidenote, although the Dutch already had a horizontal tricolor of red, white
It's disputed that the French were the first to do a vertical configuration, which would then influence flags all over the world to follow the same format.
So that's about it I mean there are a ton of underlying tid bits here and there
But overall France's symbolism points to a country that has moved into an area of progress and revolution.
This has been flag friday, you've just been flagged, stay cool stay tuned.