Tricolour - Tricolore

Still another matter referring to national symbols and which also somehow surprisingly appeared in the presidential campaign; the national flag, meaning in France, the “tricolour” (tricolore).

I remember from Sweden that almost every garden had a flagpole and the flag went up on Sundays, national holidays etc. This is not the case in France. Flagging is done only on official buildings. However, surprisingly, the socialist party candidate, “Ségo”, suggested during the campaign that every household should have a flag and expose it in their windows during national holidays. I believe it will be more or less forgotten.

Some historical data about the French flag: The present colours appeared during the French revolution, in a more unofficial way already in 1789, just after the Bastille. In 1794 it became official and has so remained with the exception of the years 1815-30, when the royalty brought their white flag back.

There are a lot of explanations why the colours are blue, white and red. (By the way, 20-25% of all national flags have these colours.)

The most common explanation is that it is a mixture of the Paris flag (red and blue) and the Bourbon flag (white).

The blue colour was also that of St. Martin, a gallo-roman officer who became a saint. (He ripped his blue coat with his sword and gave one half to a beggar; a symbol of how the rich should help the poor.)

The red colour was also that of St. Denis, patron of Paris.

White was also the colour of Virgin Mary and of Joan of Arc and became the colour of the royal Bourbons.

It has also been said that the red colour was that of the Carolingian kings (751-987), blue the colour of the Capetian kings (987-1589) and white the colour of the Bourbon kings (1589-). If this is the explanation, is the “tricolour” still a “royal flag”? (Nothing to do with Ségolène Royal.)