The French Flag
The tricolour blue, white and red flag was designed in 1790, initially with the order of colours the reverse of today's flag, with red at the hoist, and revised in 1794 to the modern form, with blue at the hoist. The present Constitution of 1958 states that "The national emblem is the tricolour flag, blue, white, red." [L'embleme national est le drapeau tricolore, bleu, blanc, rouge.] The colours are historically significant. Blue is the colour of Saint Martin, the Gallo-Roman officer who cut off half of his blue coat to give it to an impoverished beggar in the snow; it is a symbol of care and of the duty of the rich to aid the poor. White is the colour of the Joan of Arc, under whose banner the English were driven out of the Kingdom in the 15th century as well as the colour of the Virgin Mary, to whom King Louis XII concentrated the Kingdom in the 17th century. Red is the colour of Saint Denis, the patron saint of Paris. In the modern Pantone colour system, the approximate specifications of the blue and red are:
Blue: Pantone 282c / CMYK (%) C 100 - M 70 - Y 0 - K 50
Red: Pantone 186 c / CMYK (%) C 0 - M 90 - Y 80 - K5
The proportions of the flag are 2 vertical to 3 horizontal. There are two flags, differing in the proportions of Blue, White and Red across the flag. Most seen on land is the civil and state flag, in which each colour extends over one-third of the width. The naval ensign used at sea is intended to be visually effective when flying and has optical proportions: 30% blue, 33% white and 37% red. For full details on French flags, visit the Flags Of The World (FOTW) website at www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/fr.html.
