The French flag is the official French pavilion since 1794. It was drawn by Jacques Louis David, famous French painter, but it has its origins in July 1789. Shortly after the fall of the Bastille, the king visited the Paris town hall and was handed a blue and red cockade - the long-time colours of the town - which he put on his hat next to the white cockade (French kingdom emblem at the time), as a gesture towards the people of Paris. The "cockade story" was witnessed by Thomas Jefferson on the 17th of July 1789. The newly created cockade became rapidly popular. Lafayette claimed the idea, but the diary of a bookseller notes that three days before, on the 14th of July, "the three-coulour cockade begins to replace the green one"

(Since the reign of Henri IV, the red and blue could be found in the royal emblems, standing for the Kingdom of "Navarre".)

The blue and red colors in Paris' flag were standing for the patron saints of the town (Saint Martin, Saint Denis). The popular "Garde Nationale", heir of the "Garde franÃ§aise" (regiment meant to protect the King) already had the three colours blue, white and red on their uniforms. Members of the Garde Nationale took part - and even led - in the storming of La Bastille.

The white was associated at the time with the kingdom, or with France, more that with the kings, and indicated the dedication of the kingdom to the Virgin Mary ("voeu de Louis XIII", in 1638).

The three colours were used in different orders (blue-red-white for the scarf of public officials in 1790, white-red-blue in horizontal bands for the 'FÃªte de la FÃ©dÃ©ration' on the 14th of July 1790. In 1790 were also adopted new versions of ship's pavilions, despite some traditionalists arguing that because of the colours, it would resemble too much the Dutch flag.

The flag was adopted officially by the Convention as the national flag only in 1794 (15th of February).

The white flag replaced the three-color flag in 1814-1815, and from 1815 to 1830, during the two first periods when the monarchy was reinstated.

In 1830 the king Louis-Philippe came to power and reinstated the three-color flag.

After the overthrow of the Emperor Napoleon III, a royalist majority offered the throne to the Count of Chambord. He said he would accept the throne on the condition that the tricolour be replaced by the white flag. This proved impossible to accommodate and France remained a republic.

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