Fete de 14 Juillet - Happy Bastille Day!

Aux amis francais - Bonne fête!
Today is July 14th or "Bastille Day" in France. What is Bastille Day you say? Well I'm glad you asked... To liken it to the 4th of July in the U.S. wouldn't be right... but it is pretty convenient ;-) Here is the general schtick that most of you won't read (yes that means you Topher!) but for those who are interested:

Bastille Day, on the Fourteenth of July, is the French symbol of the end of the Monarchy and the beginning of the First Republic. The national holiday is a time when all citizens can feel themselves to be members of a republican nation. It is because this national holiday is rooted in the history of the birth of the Republic that it has great significance.

On July 14, 1789, the storming of the Bastille [a prison] immediately took on a great historical dimension; it was proof that power no longer resided in the King as God's representative, but in the people, in accordance with the theories developed by their philosophers of the eighteenth century. Within two days the Revolution could not be reversed. For all citizens of France, the storming of the Bastille came to symbolize liberty, democracy in the struggle against oppression. "

I shall be celebrating by making Chicken Cordon Bleu - yeah yeah I know, but it's at least inspired by something French...