🔵⚪🔴 National anthem of the Second French Empire - (1852 to 1870) 🔵⚪🔴

The Second French Empire was an Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 1852 to 1870, between the Second and the Third Republic of France. The Second French Empire oversaw some of the most significant achievements in the areas of infrastructure, social reforms and economy, and reasserted itself as the dominant power in Europe for a decade.

"Partant pour la Syrie" is a French patriotic song, the music of which was written by Hortense de Beauharnais and the text by Alexandre de Laborde, in 1807. Partant pour la Syrie was the national anthem of France during the Second Empire. After the collapse of the Second Empire in 1870, the song was played to the Emperor Napoleon III as he departed from Schloss Wilhelmshöhe to his exile in England in 1871, but by the time of Empress Eugénie's funeral in 1920, the band did not know it and played La Marseillaise instead. Partant pour la Syrie did, however, achieve a posthumous fame as one of the quoted tunes in "Fossils" from Camille Saint-Saëns's Carnival of the Animals, written in 1886 but not published until 1922.

[royalproductions]

Lyrics:

- First stanza -

Leaving for Syria,
The young and handsome Dunois
Went to ask the Virgin Mary,
His heroic deeds to bless,
Make it so, immortal Queen
He said on his leaving,
That I love the most beautiful (woman)
And be the bravest.

- Second stanza -

He writes on stone
The oath of honor
And follows into war
The earl, his lord.
Faithful to his noble vow,
He said while fighting:
Love to the most beautiful (woman)
Honor to the bravest.

- Third stanza -

We owe you the victory
Verily! says the lord,
Since you have established my glory,
I will make you happy!
My daughter Isabella
Will be your wife
For she is the most beautiful (woman)
And you the bravest.

- Fourth stanza -

At the altar of Mary,
They pledged both
This dear union
Which alone brings happiness.
Everyone in the chapel
Said seeing them:
Love to most beautiful (woman)
Honor to the bravest.

[HermitKing]

"Look at me. I'm French. All I ever do is bitch and moan and be negative about everything and everyone all the time and all I ever do is be miserable and make everyone else miserable. I also think treating children like animals by yelling at them and being neglectful and cold hearted towards them and not showing any affection is the best way to raise them. I wonder why the whole world makes fun of us and says we are rude and unpleasant? Surely it can't be our fault. It's their fault for not understanding our culture and way of living. We aren't the ones who have to change."