White had long featured prominently on French flags and is described as the "ancient French colour" by Lafayette. At the storming of the Bastille in 1789, the Paris militia wore blue and red cockades on their hats. Blue is identified with Saint Martin, red with Saint Denis. Symbolism īlue and red are the traditional colours of Paris, used on the city's coat of arms. When the French president is expected to be photographed at an official or televised event, a flag with a much narrower white stripe is often used as a backdrop a standard flag would show, close up, as only white. Under Napoleon I, the proportions were changed to make the stripes' width equal, but by a regulation dated, the navy went back to using the 30:33:37 proportions, which it now continues to use, as the flapping of the flag makes portions farther from the halyard seem smaller. Initially, the three stripes of the flag were not equally wide, being in the proportions 30 (blue), 33 (white) and 37 (red). in the proportion 2:3) and, except in the French Navy, has stripes of equal width. A comparison of the lighter and darker versions of the flag AuthorityĬurrently, the flag is one and a half times wider than its height (i.e. The move was met with comments both in favour of and against the change, but it was noted that both the darker and lighter flags have been in use for decades. On 13 July 2020, President Emmanuel Macron reverted, without any statement and with no orders for other institutions to use a specific version, to the darker hue for the presidential Élysée Palace, as a symbol of the French Revolution. Both versions were used from then town halls, public buildings and barracks usually fly the darker version of the flag, but the lighter version was sometimes used even on official State buildings. The blue stripe has usually been a dark navy blue a lighter blue (and slightly lighter red) version was introduced in 1976 by President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. In English blazon, the flag is described as tierced in pale azure, argent and gules. No law has specified the shades of these official colours. Design Īrticle 2 of the French constitution of 1958 states that "the national emblem is the tricolour flag, blue, white, red". Since July 2020, France has used the older variant by default, including at the Élysée Palace. Since 1976, there have been two versions of the flag in varying levels of use by the state: the original (identifiable by its use of navy blue) and one with a lighter shade of blue. The royal white flag was used during the Bourbon Restoration from 1815 to 1830 the tricolour was brought back after the July Revolution and has been used since then, except for an interruption for a few days in 1848. A modified design by Jacques-Louis David was adopted in 1794. The colours and design of the cockade are the basis of the Tricolour flag, adopted in 1790, originally with the red nearest to the flagpole and the blue farthest from it. This cockade became part of the uniform of the National Guard, which succeeded the militia and was commanded by Lafayette. According to French general Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, white was the "ancient French colour" and was added to the militia cockade to form a tricolour, or national, cockade of France. Early in the French Revolution, the Paris militia, which played a prominent role in the storming of the Bastille, wore a cockade of blue and red, the city's traditional colours. The tricolour scheme was later adopted by many other nations in Europe and elsewhere, and, according to the Encyclopædia Britannica has historically stood "in symbolic opposition to the autocratic and clericalist royal standards of the past".īefore the tricolour was adopted the royal government used many flags, the best known being a blue shield and gold fleurs-de-lis (the Royal Arms of France) on a white background, or state flag. While not the first tricolour, it became one of the most influential flags in history. The design was adopted after the French Revolution, where the revolutionaries were influenced by the horizontally striped red-white-blue flag of the Netherlands. It is known to English speakers as the Tricolour ( French: Tricolore), although the flag of Ireland and others are also known as such. The national flag of France (French: drapeau français) is a tricolour featuring three vertical bands coloured blue ( hoist side), white, and red. A vertical tricolour of blue, white, and redĪn interchangeable variant of the national flag with lighter shades
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