MonoMonday: France

Jensphotos would like us to celebrate the creation of the Marseillaise today, as on this day in 1792 lowly French army officer Claude-Joseph Rouget de Lisle composed the anthem whilst based in Strasbourg. Apparently it was originally called “Chant de guerre de l’armée du Rhin” (“War Song of the Army of the Rhine”) and gained its familiar title after being adopted by Provençal volunteers when they were marching from Marseille to Paris during the French Revolution.

So what to blip? I remembered that I have a complete set of 80 "Flags of the World" cards dating, I think, from the early 1960s. As I recall, these were provided free with bubblegum. Now I've never been a fan of bubblegum (no doubt because I was never any good at making it bubble!); a friend at the time had somehow got hold of a whole set of the cards but didn't want them any more. So they've been in my box of "childhood treasures" ever since. (Sadly they're not in very good condition so I don't think I'll make a million pounds selling them.)

Anyway, here's the French one complete with some "fascinating" information about France on the back! (Maybe MonoMonday wasn't the best day to show it off as you can't see the colours in the flag, but you can imagine them.)

I also dug into my collection of coins and, as you can see, I found a half-franc and a 10 centimes coin from the pre-Euro days. Beside these I've shown a 1 Euro and a 2 Euro coin, specially selected as being French ones. So it's been a bit of a trip down Memory Lane.