France .fr

Meaning of the Flag

The national flag of France (French: Drapeau national de la France) is a tricolour featuring three vertical bands coloured blue (hoist side), white, and red. The design was adopted during the French Revolution and has remained the national flag since then, with only minor variations in shade and proportion. The colours of the French flag may also represent the three main estates of the Ancien Régime (the clergy: white, the nobility: red and the bourgeoisie: blue). The three colours are occasionally taken to represent the three elements of the revolutionary motto, liberté (freedom: blue), égalité (equality: white), fraternité (brotherhood: red); this symbolism was referenced in Krzysztof Kieślowski's three colours film trilogy, for example. In the aftermath of the November 2015 Paris attacks, many famous landmarks and stadiums around the world were illuminated in the flag colours to honour the victims.

Meaning of Flag Colors

Red, Blue, White

Flag History

1. 1790–1794
   

   The colours and design of the cockade are the basis of the Tricolour flag, adopted in 1790, originally with the red nearest to the flagpole and the blue farthest from it.
2. 1814–1815
   

   Bourbon Restoration: the tricolour was abolished and the white standard of the House of Bourbon (often fleurs-de-lis) restored under Louis XVIII after Napoleon’s first abdication.
3. 1815
   

   “Hundred Days” — Napoleon returned from Elba and the tricolour was flown again for one summer, until the defeat at Waterloo.
4. 1815–1830
   

   Restored Bourbon kingdom under Louis XVIII and Charles X: the plain white field — symbol of the monarchy and the Catholic Church — replaced the tricolour, while royal arms were used as a personal standard.
5. 1830
   

   July Revolution — Louis-Philippe d’Orléans took the throne as “King of the French” and on 1 August 1830 the tricolour was definitively restored as the flag of France, never to be displaced again by a monarchy.
6. 1848
   

   Second Republic — the tricolour continued. During the February Revolution a brief proposal of a red flag was rejected; Lamartine famously argued that the tricolour had “gone round the world with the name, the glory and the liberty of the fatherland”.
7. 1852–1870
   

   Second Empire under Napoleon III — civilian tricolour with the imperial eagle added to military colours and the personal imperial standard.
8. 1870–1940
   

   Third Republic — same tricolour, codified in law and confirmed as the only national flag. Flown through the Belle Époque and both World Wars by Free France abroad.
9. 1940–1944
   

   Vichy France used the unchanged tricolour as the civil flag; the régime’s personal emblem (a francisque) appeared only on Pétain’s standard. Free French forces under de Gaulle also flew the tricolour, often charged with the Cross of Lorraine.
10. 1944–present
    

    Liberation of France — the tricolour was hoisted over the Hôtel de Ville and the Arc de Triomphe in August 1944 and has been continuous ever since. Article 2 of the 1958 Constitution formally names it the national emblem.

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