FRANCE: Napoleon Is Bombed at Versailles

Breton nationalists wreck a symbol of French "imperialism "

The explosion sounded like a belated, booming finale to the fireworks display at the Palace of Versailles. Thus, when an agitated watchman telephoned the local police station one night last week, the flics at first assumed that his report of a bomb blast was just another complaint by an angry Versailles resident about the racket over at the chateau. Earlier that evening, 50,000 people had trekked out to the magnificent 17th century palace—home of France's royal court until the revolution of 1789—for a fireworks festival celebrating the arrival of summer. While...

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