194. Revolutionary War Hero Lafayette Makes a Triumphal Return Tour

In this episode, you'll hear about the remarkable life and legacy of the man that Lin-Manuel Miranda called "America's favorite fighting Frenchman," the Marquis de Lafayette. This month marks the 200th anniversary of Lafayette's visit to Connecticut, part of his so-called "Farewell Tour" of America in 1824. Natalie Belanger of the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History spoke with Julien Icher of the Lafayette Trail about the Marquis' role in the American Revolution, and how his farewell tour 50 years later helped Americans to reflect on how far they'd come.    Check out The Lafayette Trail's YouTube series "Follow the Frenchmen" here:  https://www.youtube.com/@thelafayettetrailinc.1207/videos?app=desktop   The website for the Lafayette Trail is here: https://www.thelafayettetrail.org/  And the Connecticut Lafayette Trail website is here: https://lafayettecttrail.org/    ---------------------------------------------------- To celebrate our 200 episodes, we're asking listeners to donate $20 a month or $200 annually to help us continue bring you new episodes every two weeks.  It's easy to set up a monthly donation on the Connecticut Explored website at https://ctexplored.networkforgood.com/projects/179036-support-ct-history-podcast-grating-the-nutmeg Thank you!   Subscribe to get your copy of Connecticut Explored magazine delivered to your mailbox or your inbox-subscribe at https://simplecirc.com/subscribe/connecticut-explored   We've got issues coming up on food, celebrations and the environment with places you'll want to read about and visit.   This episode of Grating the Nutmeg was produced by Mary Donohue and engineered by Patrick O'Sullivan at https://www.highwattagemedia.com/   Follow GTN on our Facebook, Instagram and Threads pages.   This is Mary Donohue for Grating the Nutmeg. You can find me on Facebook and Instagram at WeHa Sidewalk Historian. Join us in two weeks for our next episode of Grating the Nutmeg, the podcast of Connecticut history.