04/07/2026
Today is the 4th of July, and it marks 250 years since the Declaration of Independence was signed. It's a big anniversary, and France has a real stake in it.
Without French support, the American Revolution might have gone very differently. Louis XVI recognized American independence in 1778, and the alliance that followed brought French troops, ships, and money across the Atlantic.
Lafayette was 19 when he sailed to join George Washington. Rochambeau landed in Newport with over 5,000 men. The French navy under Admiral de Grasse blocked the British at Yorktown in 1781, which sealed the war.
The friendship kept going long after the guns went quiet. The Statue of Liberty was a gift from France in 1886, designed by Bartholdi with an iron framework by Gustave Eiffel. French soldiers are buried in American cemeteries. American soldiers are buried in Normandy. It's a long, tangled, mostly warm relationship.
Versailles is the big one. Over 500 enthusiasts in period costume have set up military camps in the gardens of the Grand Trianon this weekend, complete with a re-enactment of the Battle of Yorktown.
Tonight, from 8:30 pm, the Grandes Eaux Nocturnes fountain show gets a special American edition with baroque music, drones, and fireworks. The Palace also opens its brand-new permanent American Independence Gallery today, full of Washington, Franklin, and Lafayette.
Paris kicks off Paris Plages today with the Seine quaysides and the Eiffel Tower decked out in American colors, plus free flag football on the banks of the Seine. The Musée de l'Armée has a jazz concert inspired by James Reese Europe, the Musée Carnavalet is running its 250 Years of Franco-American Friendship exhibition until September, the National Archives has a Lafayette exhibition, and you can pay your respects to the man himself at Picpus Cemetery, where the American flag flies all year round.
On the Riviera, Villefranche-sur-Mer is doing a full day honoring its friendship with the US Sixth Fleet, with a parade of vintage Jeeps rolling through to Beaulieu-sur-Mer and Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat and an open-air swing concert tonight. In Nice, there's a gathering by the Statue of Liberty replica on the Quai des Etats-Unis followed by an all-American lunch at Le Napoléon.
Lyon has an American Southeast-inspired tea time at Le Dôme, Rennes has a potluck picnic courtesy of Democrats Abroad, and closer to my neck of the woods, the Musée du Nouveau Monde in La Rochelle has an exhibition on the French role in creating the United States, running until November. Well worth the trip if you're in the southwest.
And if you can't get to any of it? A barbecue in the garden with something cold in hand does the job nicely.
Any Americans in your village celebrating today? Tell me how you're marking the big 250 below.
