Two shades of blue: France modifications color of nationwide flag and it went unnoticed for 3 years

President Emmanuel Macron ordered a change to the color of the French flag to seek out echoes of heroism in France’s previous. The change was so delicate that it went unnoticed for nearly three years. The French flag has a darker navy blue relatively than the earlier vibrant blue. (Photo: GETTY IMAGES)It’s a change so delicate it went unnoticed for nearly three years. But President Emmanuel Macron ordered a change to the color of the French flag to seek out echoes of heroism in France’s previous.

Keen-eyed observers can see that the French red-white-and-blue tricolour flying above the Elysee Palace and likewise positioned behind Macron at information conferences and speeches now has a darker navy blue relatively than the earlier vibrant blue.The navy blue color marks a return to custom — it had been then president Valery Giscard d’Estaing who switched the brighter blue in 1976 in order that it matched the color of the European flag, which shows yellow stars on a blue background.The change had been made on the flags positioned behind Macron at speeches from 2018 after which on these flying from the Elysee and different presidential buildings from 2020, a presidential official, who requested to not be named, instructed AFP on Monday.The official stated that the navy blue color “evokes the memory” of the heroes who fought within the French Revolution, the trenches of World War I and within the Resistance throughout World War II.The change has lastly been observed after being revealed in a e book “Elysee Confidential” printed this Autumn by journalists, Eliot Blondet and Paul Larrouturou.They reported that the initiative got here from the pinnacle of operations on the Elysee Arnaud Jolens, whom the journalists interviewed for his or her e book. The change value a symbolic 5,000 euros.”Giscard changed this blue for aesthetic reasons during integration with Europe, but the flag that all the presidents took along with them ever since was not the real French flag,” Jolens is quoted as saying.The Elysee official additionally identified that the flag on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris had all the time had the navy blue.France on January 1 takes on the rotating EU presidency below Macron, a pro-European, whereas he faces re-election battle in April.Click right here for IndiaToday.in’s full protection of the coronavirus pandemic.