Published since 2005. San Francisco is a city that belongs to the people of the world. Hence this blog has a global focus. The name "Sam Spade's San Francisco" refers to an exciting era in the City's history, the time of Dashiell Hammett's fictional gumshoe and San Francisco character, Sam Spade. My name is Tom Dunn and I edit the blog. I'm not as exciting as Sam Spade, but I am definitely a San Francisco character.Contact or on Twitter -- Search blog below.
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Saturday, July 14, 2007
Bastille Day in San Francisco
Two-hundred and sixteen years ago today, Parisian revolutionaries and mutinous troops storm and dismantle the Bastille, a royal fortress that had come to symbolize the tyranny of the Bourbon monarchs. This dramatic action signaled the beginning of the French Revolution, a decade of political turmoil and terror in which King Louis XVI was overthrown and tens of thousands of people, including the king and his wife Marie Antoinette, were executed.
In the photo:Eglise Notre Dame des Victoires, 564-566 Bush Street The capture of the Bastille symbolized the end of the ancienrégimeand provided the French revolutionary cause with an irresistible momentum. Joined by four-fifths of the French army, the revolutionaries seized control of Paris and then the French countryside, forcing King Louis XVI to accept a constitutional government. In 1792, the monarchy was abolished and Louis and his wife Marie-Antoinette were sent to the guillotine for treason in 1793.By order of the new revolutionary government, the Bastille was torn down. On February 6, 1790, the last stone of the hated prison-fortress was presented to the National Assembly. Today, July 14--Bastille Day--is celebrated as a national holiday in France.
Local celebrations of Bastille Day include a Grande French Court Dance at the Metronome Ballroom tonight (doors open at 7:30) andTerrance Gelenter will host a celebration of his favorite books about Paris at Books, Inc. on Van Ness. Guests Diane Johnson, Cara Black, Carolyn Burke and Georganne Brennan discussing their latest works and their favorites.
The Notre Dame des Victoires community in San Francisco consists of the French National Church in San Francisco on Bush Street and its adjacent coed Catholic Kindergarten through eighth grade school on Pine Street. This is the last bastion of a once large and thriving French community in San Francisco.
Eglise Notre Dame des Victoires was founded in 1856 to serve the spiritual needs of the French Catholic immigrants who came to San Francisco during the Gold Rush. In 1887, Pope Leo XIII signed the decree placing Eglise Notre Dame des Victoires under the charge of the Marists for perpetuity and giving it the designation of being a French National Church. Read more about their history here.
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