The "cockades" worn by the crowd were initially green, a color associated with liberty, and made at first from the leaves of the trees that line the Palais Royal.

However, the color green is also associated with the Comte d'Artois, the reactionary and conservative brother of the King, and the cockades therefore are quickly replaced by others in the traditional colors of Paris: red and blue.

The forces semi-organized under this banner had attacked the Hôtel des Invalides to gain arms and, on 14 July, embark upon the Storming of the Bastille.