Anchor of old Paris, L'Arc de Triomphe frames a parade on Bastille Day. Celebrating the Great Revolution, the French take to the streets for a day-long party every July 14th, the anniversary of the day Parisians took the Bastille, beheaded the governor, and emptied the jail in the name of "Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity."

(Text adapted from and photograph shot on assignment for, but not published in, "The New, the Enduring Paris," July 1989, National Geographic magazine)