PARIS -- Once again, the French people celebrated their national feast July 14, which marks the anniversary of the fall of the Bastille royal jail -- the beginning of the great 1789 Revolution.
Paradoxically, it didn't deter the president of the republic from inviting the king and queen of Spain, notwithstanding that, like Louis XVI, who was beheaded in 1793 in Concorde square, Juan Carlos belongs to the Bourbon dynasty.
According to an immemorial rule, the feast was marked by a huge military parade on the Champs-Elysees. Only a few servicemen took part in it and it was for the last time, the draft having been abolished.