Tricolore

The tricolore is the national flag of France. Known to English speakers as the French tricolour (UK) or tricolor (US), it features three vertical bands coloured blue (hoist side), white, and red. It first appeared during the French Revolution and was a combination of the colours of the coat of arms of Paris (red and blue) and the royal colour (white), with the combination often being credited to the Marquis de Lafayette. The original configuration had the colour red at the hoist side, but this was changed when the flag was officially adopted as the national flag on February 15 1794 during the First Republic.

The three stripes are not in fact of equal width, since if they were the white stripe, being brighter, would appear disproportionately wider to the human eye. The proportions of the stripes are 30 (blue), 33 (white) and 37 (red). These proportions were decided by a regulation dated 17 May 1853.

After the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy following the defeat of Napoleon in 1815 the tricolore was replaced by the royal white standard with fleur-de-lis which had been in use before the Revolution. However, the revolution of 1830 saw Louis-Philippe, the Citizen-King, ascend to the throne who again designated the tricolore as the national flag, which it has remained ever since.

The flag of the Acadians was based on the French flag.