La Fête Nationale, now and then

Joyeux 14 juillet! It’s la fête nationale in France today, what we call Bastille Day in English. Turns out nobody calls it that in France. French Today blog has a great run-down of vocabulary and customs for Le 14 juillet, I recommend it.

(It’s also the 108th anniversary of the birth of American folk-singer Woody Guthrie. Happy birthday, Woody!)

Covid-19 has has disrupted the 2020 celebration of quatorze juillet this year, but not as much as I would have expected. France’s daily Covid-19 totals nationwide are down to 800 new cases / 30 new deaths, and are largely having success at re-opening their society. In Paris, they are going ahead with an all-day concert on Champs-de-Mars, a military ceremony on Place de la Concorde, an ariel parade over Chaps Élysée, and midnight fireworks. There are more restrictions than usual on people gathering to view these events, but the Champs-de-Mars concert is definitely open to the public. Sortir à Paris has a full guide of Fête Nationale 2020 events.

My oldest daughter and I were in Paris on 14 juillet 2013, sampling a lot of venues:

We attended a nearby Bals des Pompiers at midnight 13-14 juillet, viewed the morning military parade on the Champs Élysée, went to a movie near Opéra in the afternoon, then took a boat cruise on the Seine at night, watching the fireworks from near Pont de l’Alma

Here’s some of what we saw seven years ago.

A 14 Juillet midnight tradition: Bals des Pompiers. We watched from the outside, didn’t make it into the dance hall.

We watched the défilé militaire from the sidewalk, near the George V metro stop. First there was an aerial display, a parade in the sky of sorts, complete with un drapeau français.

Next came a mechanized parade. First police and fire vehicles…

… and then military vehicles:

After that, a final return to the air:

We took the afternoon off, then went on a bateau-mouche at night to watch the fireworks from the water.

At the time, I had mixed feelings about the military parade in Paris. On the one hand, it seemed totally authentic, patriotic, clean, and stereotypically French. On the other hand, I imagined the analogous event in Washington, D. C., on July 4th and didn’t like the image at all. Of course, it didn’t take too many years before imagination became reality. I was right: I was not a fan of the July 4, 2019 military parade in D. C.

Maybe some French traditions are best left to the French…

Alexis Michalik in Five Paris Theaters starting August 18.

Paris shut down all its live theaters for several months during the Covid pandemic and the period of confinement. It has been gradually unwinding the shutdown (déconfinement), and today live theaters are announcing their reopening plans. It made me very happy to receive the email shown below in my inbox.

That’s right, five separate plays by Alexis Michalik showing in five separate theaters in Paris. He’s 37 years old, and inarguably the most popular French playwright of the 21st century. I have seen three of these plays on stage, and have read the other two. The script of each has been published in book form, and I have all five on my shelf. Heck, I even have framed posters for two of them sitting in my living room, waiting to be hung on the wall.

As you can tell, I’m a fan. I’ll write another post some time about the plays themselves and why I like them so much, but for now I just wanted to share the fact that they are reopening in August. Here in the US we are still in the “50,000 new Covid cases a day” phase of the pandemic, so seeing French theaters reopening is a reassuring source of hope. Michalik’s most recent work, Une histoire d’amour, won a Molière award for best director (he directed it himself), and I have read and enjoyed the text.

I’m looking forward to the day when Covid is behind us, France lifts its ban on US travellers, and I can make it back to Paris to see Une histoire d’amour.


Received 2020-07-02:

Nous ouvrons enfin ! Après tous ces mois d’attente nous sommes tellement heureux et impatients de vous accueillir pour cette rentrée 2020 !

-> LE PORTEUR D’HISTOIRE aux Béliers -> theatredesbeliersparisiens.com

-> LE CERCLE DES ILLUSIONNISTES au Splendid -> lesplendid.com

-> EDMOND au Palais Royal -> theatrepalaisroyal.com

-> INTRAMUROS à La Pépinière -> theatrelapepiniere.com

-> UNE HISTOIRE D’AMOUR à La Scala -> lascala-paris.com