You could argue that without France there'd probably be no United States of America.

Coming up in the hour ahead, historian David McCullough

explains some of the important ways that Paris has influenced the growth of the USA.

History is about more than politics. Paris has influenced the growth of the USA.

History is about more than politics and war.

History is about art and music and architecture and medicine and science,

all that the human mind and the human spirit can achieve.

An American journalist tells us why her Paris neighborhood is like a living museum that feels like home.

You walk past a shop and you can smell a lemon tart and you know you just have to say

there's something good about the world today and get a taste of how they celebrate Bastille Day in France.

I'm a sailor and I've got the experience of sailing along the

cost on the night of the 14th of July and you see something like 15-20 fireworks pretty much

at the same time all along the coast. It's absolutely unbelievable.

Bonjour, it's Travel with Rick Steves.

No matter how much the late night TV comics like to joke about the French, Americans do owe a great deal to France.

Coming up on today's travel with Rick Steve's, historian David McCullough reminds us why many of America's most important inventors and scientists and thinkers and artists

went out of their way to learn from the French.

Plus journalist Elaine Shalino tells us why she bought an apartment in a Paris neighborhood you've probably never heard of.

It's where daily life continues as it has for centuries, chatting with shopkeepers and meeting your neighbors on streets that once defined the nation of France.

Let's start out the hour with a look at the big French national holiday as they bring out the tricolor flags for Bastille Day.

It commemorates France's own revolution to establish a government that was by for and of the people.

And for some, this year will likely take on an extra dimension as the French push

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