site.btaUNESCO World Heritage Committee to Pause Meetings for Bastille Day

The UNESCO World Heritage Committee will not convene on Monday, UNESCO said in a press release. The reason is France’s national holiday, Bastille Day, on July 14.

On Monday, a military parade will take place on the Champs-Elysees in Paris to celebrate the country’s national holiday, followed by fireworks at the Eiffel Tower in the evening along with a drone choreography display.

Monday will also mark 230 years since La Marseillaise was officially declared the national anthem of France in 1795. The music and lyrics were written on the night of April 25 to 26, 1792, by military engineer, poet and composer Claude-Joseph Rouget de Lisle. Originally called the “War Song of the Rhine Army”, it was first performed on the streets of Paris on July 30, 1792. It was sung by soldiers of the Marseille revolutionary battalion during their entry into Paris on August 10, 1792, during the French Revolution (1789–1794), from which it took its name. La Marseillaise was declared the anthem by the Convention on July 14, 1795, and officially established by law on February 14, 1879.