Two-hundred and twenty-five years ago last week, French citizens stormed the Bastille fortress in eastern Paris, liberating political prisoners and virtually settling the French Revolution. The fall of the Bastille to the French proletariat made possible the Declaration of the Rights of Man, the abolition of the feudal system, and—eventually—the guy in the striped shirt who smokes clove cigarettes in your campus quad.
In honor of the 225th celebration of the Fête de la Fédération, we compiled our favorite 20th-century French music, from the sultry Serge Gainsbourg and the spunky mod-rocker Jacques Dutronc to the smoke-tinged Françoise Hardy to the rubbery post-punk of Lizzy Mercier Descloux. Oh. And a couple of dudes in robot helmets.
Écoutez avec Spotify.
