À la Bastille!

I remember the wonderful adventures of my visit to Paris over Bastille Day in 1989, the year of the Bicentennial of the French Revolution—staying at a little hotel very near the Bastille; seeing Andrea Chenier on a stage built over the Swiss Basin at Versailles; loving the citywide music (much African) and the little sausages grilled on braziers on the street; hating the firecrackers tossed, lit, into the crowds; climbing upended traffic barricades into the thick leaves of plane trees to see the parades along the stately boulevards; trying to fit in all of the everyday Parisian sights and pleasures too.

Some of my favorite French things (des jolies choses) to celebrate today—

some favorite French artists: Bonnard, bien sûr; Puvis de Chavannes, Monet, Gauguin, Pisarro, Renoir

some favorite French authors:  Stendhal, Colette, Marguerite Duras, Proust, Jean Giono, Dumas (père), Simenon

some favorite French films:  Cousin, Cousine; Life and Nothing But, Danton, Amelie, Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources, Cyrano de Bergerac

some favorite French food:  coq au vin, poulet rôti, salade Niçoise, cherry clafoutis, tartes, vins, fromages

some favorite French music:  Faure’s Chançon sans paroles, Ravel’s Boléro and Piano Concerto for the Left Hand, Massenet’s Meditation, Offenbach, Satie, Gounod’s Faust and Roméo e Juliette

some favorite French places:  Paris, Annecy, Arles, Giverny

favorite French saying:  On ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur.  "We see well only with the heart," from Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Enjoy something French today, however you choose to celebrate.



images:  Christie B. Cochrell, Web Collage

14 July 2006 Fireworks at the Eiffel Tower, Celeste Hutchins