Lafayette

Here's a story I just found out today ...

About 230 years ago a 19 year old French boy named Lafayette heard that people in America were rising in a revolt against the English king.  Excited by the ideals of liberty for the people, Lafayette decided to go to America to fight on the American side.

He became very successful, and eventually became a General after returning to France, where he died around 1830.  His body was interred (buried) in a cemetery in the Parisian suburb of Picpus.  His wife and some members of her family are buried there too.

Picpus cemetery is a very special place.  Thirteen years after the revolution in America, there was another one in France; that began with the famous storming of the Bastille prison in 1789.  That prison is gone now and in its place is a big (and famous!) traffic roundabout, near where we stayed last June during our vacation there.

Then a few years after the storming of the Bastille, the Jacobins gained power and started a campaign to eliminate their opposition.  That started a period known as the 'Terror', when many people were sent to the guillotine.  In june and july of 1793, 1306 people had their heads chopped off by guillotine!  All these people were buried in Picpus.  Subsequently only people whose family can be traced to those early victims of the Jacobins can be buried in Picpus.  Lafayette survived the Terror and is buried there because his mother in law and sister in law were killed by the Jaobins.  So they even killed women!

Meanwhile in the 19th century America became a successful industrialized country and a new world power.  They never forgot Lafayette and in 1916/17 they got their chance to repay their debt of gratitude.  During the 1st World War, Germany attacked France.  At  first America stayed out but  after Germany sank the Lusitania (an American passenger ship) , America entered the war.

American troops landed in France around 1917.  A senior officer then looked for the old General's grave in Picpus and installed an American flag there.  The speech he gave was a short one, and it ended with the simple yet moving phrase , "Lafayette, we are here."   About a year later the Germans were defeated and France was free.

To this day it's not unusual for US Navy ships to have French names.  Here's probably the most famous one;
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lafayette_class_submarine