Voice of Real Australia is a regular newsletter from ACM, which has journalists in every state and territory. Today's is written by ACM supervising producer (and proud 'Frozzie') Emma Horn. Bonjour, mes amis et bienvenue! It is the day to shamelessly gouge on pastry, cheese, and red wine, for it is Bastille Day! The best day to be French! At the last census, Australia claimed 148,922 residents with French ancestry, including 36,028 who are French by birth. My beautiful mother is one amongst the many in Australia's French community. She was born in Mauritius as a French citizen and immigrated to Australia in the 1960s. That makes me a proud first-generation 'Frozzie' (that's a French Aussie!). The 'Frozzie' community is growing quickly. Between the census dates in 2006 and 2011, there was an extraordinary 28.6 per cent increase! It's exciting to find another French person in Australia, no matter where they were born, if there's French ancestry we are la famille! With many of us now living outside major cities, we're bringing a little French flavour to the regions. And isn't that the most beautiful thing about Australia? Our multiculturalism is glorious! For us Frozzies, Bastille Day falls in winter. As a half-French woman born in Australia, I have never experienced a Bastille Day without a cold nip in the air! Mulled wine and raclette pairs so well with a warm wool beret and a crisp wind against the face! After all, food is love and the French speak the language of love, right? Well, not entirely. On Bastille Day, French is the language of bloody victory and righteous anger! That too pairs so well with raclette and a baguette. As my mother says: "Il y a une ligne fine entre l'amour et la haine" (There's a fine line between love and hate). The French are passionate people, and that passion can manifest as either sweetly scented affection, or brutally honest acrimony. Don't believe me? Insult a French person's cooking and see what kinds of venom pours out from our lips. Bastille Day highlights this emotional duality better than any other event on the international calendar. French speakers around the world will celebrate the day with a toast of wine, cheese, and fireworks. But what are we actually celebrating? The violent execution of roughly 40,000 people during the infamous 'reign of terror' from 1793 to 1794... that's what we're celebrating... To French speakers, the day is referred to as FĂȘte Nationale du quartorze Juillet or simply FĂȘte Nationale ('national holiday'). It commemorates the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789. When feudal peasants' demands for weaponry was denied, the mob stormed the medieval fortress and unlocked prisoners who had been kept in the Bastille. This action ushered in the beginning of the French Revolution which overthrew the Bourbon monarchy and left King Louis XIV without a head. This story is told to French children from a very young age to ensure that every new generation remembers the fight against oppression. As the adage says, if you forget history, you're bound to repeat it. The July 14 storming of the Bastille is so much a part of the French consciousness that the story forms the backbone of La Marseillaise, the French national anthem. The first line of the song recalls the stain of terror: "Let's go children of the fatherland, the day of glory has arrived. Against us tyranny's bloody flag is raised! In the countryside, do you hear the roaring of these fierce soldiers? They come with arms to slit the throats of our sons, our friends!" What blood lust! The whole song is a literal call to fight. It continues: "Grab your weapons, citizens form your battalions. March on, may the impure blood water our fields". The final line of La Marseillaise is a proclamation to find the grave if liberty and freedom are not forthcoming. "We will enter the quarry when our elders are no longer there, we will find their dust and the traces of their virtue. Much less jealous of surviving them than to share their coffin, we will have the pride to avenge them or to follow them!" Ah, the language of love! Joyeux quatorze Juillet, mes amis! What's happening around Australia