France is celebrating its National Day today, Thursday 14 July 2022, formally called Fête nationale française and more commonly known as the Bastille Day in English.
Bastille Day is an annual holiday in France commemorating the storming of the Bastille (an old fortress in Paris) on 14 July 1789, a major event of the French Revolution, as well as the Fête de la Fédération which celebrated the unity of the French people on 14 July 1790.
Traditionally, in France, a military parade, reported to be one of the oldest (since 1880) and largest in Europe, is held annually on the Champs-Élysées in Paris (since 1918) in the presence of the President of the French Republic and other officials, with the exception of the period of German occupation (from 1940 to 1944) and in 2020, due to COVID-19 pandemic.
Since the end of the First World War, Liège in Belgium also celebrates Bastille Day with a fireworks display outside Congress Hall and a traditional festival dance of the French consul.
In Luxembourg this year, the inauguration of a miniature Eiffel Tower in Place de Paris (Luxembourg-Ville) will coincide with Bastille Day. This forms part of the Summerstreets 2022 festival organised by the City of Luxembourg (Ville de Luxembourg - VdL), which will take place from mid-July to mid-September. The Protestant Church of Luxembourg is also organising a special "Midi musical" with a Bastille Day concert from 12:30 to 13:15; entry is free.
According to the National Registry of Natural Persons, there were 60,409 French nationals (including multiple nationality holders) risiding in Luxembourg as of 30 June 2022, representing the second largest foreign community after Portuguese nationals.
Of the 60,409 French nationals in Luxembourg, 24,249 (40%) were living in Luxembourg City, followed by Hesperange (2,946), Esch-sur-Alzette (2,408), Strassen (1,755) and Dudelange (1,567). French nationals were resident in all the 102 municipalities of Luxembourg, with twelve municipalities recording more than 1,000 French nationals each.
