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Today is Quatorze Juillet, the French national holiday that marks the storming of the Bastille in 1789 and the start of the French revolution. Mr Blarel, the French ambassador to the Netherlands, is from Lille, where he studied history at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques before it merged with the Ecole National d'Administration (promotion Voltaire) in 1980. He is a career diplomat who has been stationed in New Delhi, Buenos Aires, Washington, Madrid and Hanoi.
Quatorze Juillet is traditionally celebrated with fireworks, either on the day itself or on the evening before the holiday. These professional fireworks displays are often accompanied by other festivities, and on the morning of 14 July, a military parade on the Champs-Elysées is reviewed by the president of the republic.
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