Vinlands Icelandics: Fourth of July, 2020

Wednesday, July 8, 2020

Fourth of July, 2020

I did not know or had forgotten that because the French had supported our war of independence from Great Britain, they had bankrupted themselves. Their normal annual budget was about 600 million dollars. They spent 1.5 billion dollars supporting us which left them virtually penniless (sous-less?) The populace were not apparently mad at Louis Seize (16th), or at least not as mad at him as at his Austrian wife Marie Antoinette. Louis was eventually executed on January 21, 1793, Marie Antoinette later that same year on October 16, 1793.

The French celebrate their liberation day on July 14, the day of the storming of the Bastille (a prison) occurred on le Quatorze Juillet, Only 7 prisoners were being held there however. Later 10,000 French women - yes women - stormed towards Versailles demanding flour to make bread to feed their hungry, starving families. Marie Antoinette is reputed today to have said, "Let them eat cake." But she never said that. A previous queen had indeed said, "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche." (Let them eat brioche.) Later that was incorrectly attributed to Marie Antoinette. Brioche is not cake. It is rich type of bread which has eggs as part of the recipe. History, the stories that are spread and passed on are often not true or only partially true. Clicking on photos will enlarge them.

Bonsai - Jasmine

The Cathedral St. Denis, my personal favorite French cathedral, in Paris is where many French kings and queens are buried - including Louis XVI (16) and his wife Marie Antoinette. I did not know that the bloody murders of the nobility and takeover by actually the middle class, not the peasants, made the rulers of much of the rest of Europe very nervous and they individually attacked France. The Brits attacked Toulon in the south of France and were repulsed by Napoleon - who, at 5'7" was not short but about average for that time and place. The point? America's costly independence war was a large contributing factor in those events in Europe. Oh, and also, one of my ancestors, Antoni Bujon (we're not sure of the spelling; we're not sure if he was a noble, a peasant, a bourgeois - middle class, or?) fled France for Denmark to escape the several purges following those events. I'm glad he did though. (My own Grandfather's name Niels Marius Antoni Hansen was named after that Frenchman.

Colt's Foot

I have wondered if the nest egg for the Hansen Farm in Hurup was taken to Denmark by French Antoni. It looks pretty nice in this 1905 painting of the farm house.