often when i think of bastille day, i remember the story about the bicentennial in 1989 where mitterrand "recalled the glory of 1789 as the 'birth of the modern era,'" which caused some eyebrow raising on the part of margaret thatcher (and some other brits, and americans). and thatcher perhaps drinking too much champagne at the bicentennial festivities and commenting to mitterrand 'what do you have to celebrate about the french revolution? all it gave you was a pile of headless corpses and a dictator.' also as a commemorative gift she presented him with a copy of dickens' a tale of two cities.

she was seated in the back row at the big ceremony.

copyright 2003 carrie lynn king.