The week after the 4th of July holiday, a history class about the places in Paris, France, that are related to our War of Independence will be held at Blue Ridge Community College – at both Transylvania and Henderson County campuses. The class in HendersonCounty will begin Wednesday, July 11, and be held on consecutive Wednesdays through July 25. InTransylvania, the class begins on Thursday, July 12 and will be held on consecutive Thursdays through July 26. Each course is 10 a.m. to noon. The cost is $50.

This course -- “American History in Paris” -- is a Powerpoint presentation that takes students through the streets of Paris to see such places as where Benjamin Franklin lived while negotiating French support for the American colonists’ War of Independence. It will also show the grand building where 4,000 Parisians stood to mourn Franklin’s death years later. Students will discover where Thomas Jefferson bought many of the books that became the first volumes of our young country’s Library of Congress. The handsome statue of George Washington astride his horse, given to France by the women of the young United States in gratitude for French assistance during the war – students will learn where it is and see it.

“I learned so much about our own history,” said one former student. “I don’t remember studying any of these interesting facts in school. My next trip to Paris, I’ll take the map we got in class and stop by a few locations that I learned about. The whole course was really enlightening.”

Mary Jo Padgett, has based her course on a book she acquired and studied while living in Paris. She discovered more than twenty-three locations around the city where treaties were signed, statues erected, parks created, streets named, or plaques put on buildings – all relating to French involvement and support for the American Revolution.

Course information and registration forms are available on the college web site atwww.blueridge.edu. Preregistration is recommended. Get more information from Mary Jo at 828-697-9557 or maryjo@maryjopadgett.com or phone Cecile Duval, Transylvania campus, at 828- 694-1910, orceciled@blueridge.edu, or Martha Howell, Henderson campus, at 828-694-1743, or marthah@blueridge.edu.