France
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France
Flag of France - Image by Željko Heimer, 22 September 2001
Flag adopted, as an ensign, by Decree of 27 Pluviôse of the Year II (15 February 1794)
Proportion: 2:3
Use: on land, as the national (civil and state) flag.
Colour approximate specifications (Album des Pavillons [pay00] ):
Blue: Pantone 282c / CMYK (%) 100-70-0-50
Red: Pantone 186c / CMYK (%) 0-90-80-5
On this page:
France: Index of all pages
Origin of the French flag
In brief we can accept that the colours are basically those of Paris as used on the day of the storming of the Bastille , mixed with the Royal white . It is thought that the Marquis de Lafayette was responsible for inventing the red, white and blue cockade which soon became compulsory for Revolutionaries in 1789. We don't have to believe that the combination arose because the King placed a red-blue cockade in his hat next to a Royal white one, but combinations of Revolutionary and Royal emblems were common at that time.
The flag was created in 1790 but with the colours the reverse of what they are today, i.e. with red at the hoist, and revised in 1794 to the modern form. The 1790 flag existed only as part of the jack and ensign of the navy.
The flag went out of use with Napoléon I 's defeat at Waterloo, but was brought back in 1830 (again by Lafayette) and has remained in use ever since. Although significances have been attached to the colours these are all spurious and invented after the fact. The red and blue of Paris were the livery colours of the coat of arms and natural ones for use by the militia.
William Crampton, undated
Colours of the French flag
The colors of the French flag "combine" different symbols, invented after the fact:
- Blue is the color of Saint Martin, a rich Gallo-Roman officer    who ripped his blue cloak with his sword to give one half of it to    a poor who was begging him in the snow. This is the symbol of    care, of the duty that the rich had to help the poor.
- White is the color of the Virgin Mary, to whom the Kingdom of France was consecrated by    Louis XIII in the 17th century; it is also the color of Joan of Arc , under whose banner the    English were finally driven out of the Kingdom (15th century). It    became logically the color of Royalty. The King's vessels carried plain white flags at sea.
- Red is the color of Saint Denis, the saint patron of Paris.    The original oriflamme (war banner) of    the Kings was the red oriflamme of Saint Denis.
Pierre Gay, 15 September 1998
Most French flags, at least in the beginning of their use, have a very dark blue shade, sometimes called bleu drapeau (flag blue). Petit Larousse Illustré has nothing on bleu drapeau, but has:
Bleu roi : bleu soutenu (celui du drapeau francais) (King blue: strong blue, the blue of the French flag).
Therefore, it seems that the use of a dark blue for the French flag has been widely accepted, since it is highligted to examplify the "King blue" shade.
Ivan Sache, 23 September 2001
For the naval flags, the maintenance service of the French Navy (HCC) gives the following specifications (in reference to AFNOR standard NFX 08002):
Blue A 503
Blue Pantone 282c and red 186c are my translation (approximation) of those colours.
Armand Noël du Payrat, 24 September 2001
The protocol manual for the London 2012 Olympics (Flags and Anthems Manual London 2012 [loc12] ) provides recommendations for national flag designs. Each NOC was sent an image of the flag, including the PMS shades, for their approval by LOCOG. Once this was obtained, LOCOG produced a 60 x 90 cm version of the flag for further approval. So, while these specs may not be the official, government, version of each flag, they are certainly what the NOC believed the flag to be.
For France, PMS Reflex blue, 032 red. The vertical version is simply the flag turned through 90 degrees clockwise.
Ian Sumner, 10 October 2012
Jean-Pierre Raffarin, Prime Minister of France from 6 May 2002 to 31 May 2005, made a consistent use of his own interpretation of the colours of the flag in his political speeches.
8 May 2002 - Interview by F. Leroy, France3 Poitiers, the regional TV channel of Poitou , Raffarin's region.
Mais aujourd hui, je sers ces trois belles couleurs, le bleu de notre histoire, le blanc de nos espoirs, et le rouge du sang de nos ancêtres, ce drapeau bleu, blanc, rouge [...] (Today, I serve these three beautiful colours, the blue of our history, the white of our hopes, and the red of the blood of our ancestors, this blue, white, red flag [...])
11 November 2002 - Commemoration of the 11 November 1918 Armistice in Rethondes, the place where the Armistice was signed.
Ce drapeau qui allie le bleu de notre histoire, le blanc de notre espoir et le rouge du sang de nos aînés, le sang de notre gloire [...] (This flag, which matches the blue of our history, the white of our hope and the red of the blood of our elders, the blood of our glory [...])
7 March 2003 - European Forum in Avignon.
[...] notre appartenance à notre drapeau, à ce bleu de l'histoire, à ce blanc de notre espoir, à ce rouge du sang de nos ancêtres. ( [...] our sence of belonging to our flag, to this blue of history, this white of hope, this red of the blood of our ancestors.)
Ivan Sache, 22 November 2003
Nickname of the French flag
Nouveau Petit Larousse Illustré has for Tricolore the following entry:
Tricolore adj. (du pref. tri , et du latin color , couleur). De trois couleurs. Le drapeau tricolore, le drapeau français. - L'origine des trois couleurs qui figurent dans notre drapeau national remonte à l'année 1789 : pour cimenter la bonne intelligence entre le roi et la ville de Paris, dans la journée où, suivant le mot heureux de Bailly, Paris reconquit son roi, on réunit à la couleur blanche, qui était celle de la royauté, le bleu et le rouge, couleurs qui figuraient dans les armes de la ville de Paris.
(Tricolore adj. (from prefix tri and Latin color, colour). Of three colours. Le drapeau tricolore: The French flag. - The origins of the three colours shown on our national flag dates back to year 1789: In order to create a good relation between the King and the town of Paris, on the day where, as Bailly expressed it rejoicing, Paris reconquered its King, the colour white, which was that of Royalty, was associated with blue and red, which are colours figuring in the arms of the town of Paris.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 26 September 2001
Decree on the French flag
The French National Convention adopted as national flag the three colours blue, white, red on 15 February 1794 - or more exactly, on the 27 Pluviôse of the Year II, according to the revolutionary calendar. The Decree says:
II. The national flag shall be formed of the three national    colours, set in three equal bands, placed vertically so that    blue is closed to the staff of the flag, white in the    middle, and red at the fly.
III. The jack and the ensign are formed in the same way,    observing the size proportions established by custom.
IV. The commissioning pennant shall also be made of the three    colours, with one-fifth blue, one-fifth white, and three-fifths    red.
Armand Noël du Payrat, 4 February 1998
The French flag in the Constitution
The present Constitution of the French Republic, adopted in 1958 says:
L'emblème national est le drapeau tricolore, bleu, blanc, rouge (The national emblem is the tricolor, blue, white, red, flag).
Pierre Gay, 24 September 1998
French national ensign
French national ensign - Image by Željko Heimer, 22 September 2001
The respective proportions of the vertical blue, white and red stripes on the French flag when used at sea as the civil or naval ensign or jack are 30:33:37, to give a good visual effect when flying, and are therefore called optical proportions.
Civil vessels shall indeed use the prescribed ensign (and not a Tricolore flag with equal stripes.
The Tricolore ensign was adopted by Decree of the 27 Pluviôse of the Year II (15 February 1794) and confirmed by Decree dated 7 March 1848. The proportions 30:33:37 were officialized by  a Regulation dated 17 May 1853.
This of 1853 gives the precise measurements, in metres and centimetres, of the standard legal ensigns, numbered from 1 to 16. #1 is 9 m x 13.5 m and #16 is 50 cm x 75 cm.
Željko Heimer, Armand Noêl du Payrat & Pierre Gay, 12 March 2006