Bastille Day at the French Embassy

I was lucky enough to be invited to the Bastille Day party this evening at the French Embassy here in Washington (and I didn't even have to sell out my people to go!). Bastille Day is, of course, French independence day, taking place every year on the 14th of July. The French, however, don't call the holiday Bastille Day - they call it the Fête Nationale (the national celebration) or the quatorze juillet (the 14th of July). Just like us to give French independence day it's own American name :-)



This is the French cultural center, located next to the French Embassy in Georgetown, just north of the university. It's a beautiful area, and the building is quite nice architecturally. The party, I'm told by a friend at the embassy, takes place in French embassies around the world every July 14, and is open to any French citizen arriving at the embassy gates with a French passport - they are required to let them in on this day every year for the party.

The party itself was surprisingly French. I say that, meaning, there weren't that many Americans at all - I was expecting half the place to be invited American guests. Not so. In fact, it was a bit like visiting Miami, well, a French Miami - in that, people just assumed you spoke French, and daggumit, that was going to be the operating language whether you liked it or not (for example, I learned from the nice French security man at the metal detector how to say "albuterol" in French).



The inside of the cultural center is a bit more Spartan, but the set up was very nice. They had sandwich food (bread and sliced meat), and the de rigeur pâté. They also had a number of stations set up with drinks, one had Pernod (French ouzo), another champagne, another French vodka, and so on. I didn't get a lot of food as, just as I walked up to the food table, the US national anthem started to play. It felt somehow rude to just star jabbing at roast beef while the Star Spangled Banner was playing, so I dutifully stood at attention while lots of people were snagging up the remaining baguette in front of me. Then, of course, before I could jump in, the French national anthem started, so again I stood politely at attention, while the hordes around me devoured. I did finally get some pâté, but gave up on the rest, as the scene quickly became an ad hoc re-enactment of the storming of the Bastille.

It's hard to say why exactly, but the embassy hired some can-can dancers to come perform during the reception. It was fun. Just a bit different.



There were also a few men and women dressed in Revolutionary War period garb. Again, not quite clear why, and while standing in line to get in at security, a Ben Franklin replica was standing behind me. I should have asked him what was up, but honestly, a part of me thought he might be nuts rather than the entertainment (after all, we do have the infomercial guy with the dollar signs on his suit living in the neighborhood - or at least often parking here with his dollar-sign car). Funny aside, I saw dollar-suit guy in the security line at Dulles Airport maybe 6 weeks after September 11. Mind you, Dulles was the airport the plane that hit the Pentagon left from. I pitied crazy infomercial guy, because I suspected he was going to get a very special cavity search in his little dollar suit that day.

It was time to go, I took a look to my right, and don't know why, but for me the scene had sort of a crazy Renoir moment to it.