Vive la France!

This week Francophiles around the world will celebrate Bastille Day, a national holiday marking the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789. Every year the people of France and its territories commemorate the beginning of the French Revolution with a military parade on the Champs-Elysees. In other countries, like the US, people celebrate Bastille Day by taking part in all things French--music, food, wine, and lots of red, white, and blue (the colors of the French flag).

Unknowingly I started celebrating on Friday after work. I decided to treat myself to a nice (but not expensive) lunch at a cafe on Park Avenue called L'Express. Open 24/7 the French bistro serves everything from traditional croque monsieur to nicoise salad, moules marinieres to escargots. I don't know why, but I had a craving for a traditional French lunch, including a croque monsieur, pommes frites, and a glass of vin blanc. It was like I was right back in Paris, sipping wine and reading a novel while watching the crowds pass by the window and customers flow in and out of the restaurant entrance, some with dogs in tow.

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Today New Yorkers assembled on 60th Street between 5th and Lexington Avenues to celebrate French culture, history, and, of course, food. The French Institute Alliance Francais offers educational and cultural programs for anyone interested in French culture, like me. You can take French language lessons, attend food and wine tastings, watch French films, and meet other Francophiles in the heart of midtown Manhattan. And each year they throw a big street festival the weekend before Bastille Day with vendors from all over the city, live music, and (since the French love football) a live outdoor screening of the 2016 Euro Final France vs Portugal.

I wasn't at the festival for the football (I prefer American football, TBH). I was there for the food. Unfortunately, so was everyone else on the island. The three-block festival was packed with people, so many that I had to shoulder my way from one end of the event to the other, stopping only to peer over the shoulders of others to see what the vendors were selling. I wanted to try it all--crepes, macarons, pommes frites, pastries, croissants, cafe au lait--but I could barely get a glimpse of the options for all the people in the way. I managed to buy a baguette, but my attempt at finding a crepe stand that didn't have a line of people wrapped around the tent failed miserably. Note to self: get there right when it opens next year and take advantage of all the amazing (and delicious) tastings before the crowds. Oh, and bring cash!

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Fortunately I'll have one more chance to feel French this week: Bastille Day is this Thursday, July 14. Here's what I'm thinking: pain au chocolat and a cafe au lait for breakfast, a jambon-beurre for lunch, macarons for an afternoon snack, moules frites for dinner, and a banana-nutella crepe for dessert. And a glass (or two) of champagne. Because it is, after all, a celebration! Vive la France!