Allons enfants de la patrie! Today is France's national day, known to the Brits as Bastille Day, although the French call it the 14th of July.
In case anyone is looking for me over the next few days, I shall be watching fireworks on the beach in Normandie and then dancing in the market square with the Henri Marchand Orchestra (whoever they happen to be!)
For the record: July 14 is celebrated as Bastille Day in France. The Bastille was a prison in Paris, which the people stormed and seized in 1789, starting the French Revolution that toppled King Louis XVI and the aristocracy.
Just to remind themselves that the aristocracy have now been replaced by the bureaucracy, we light up the skies with half the world's fireworks, which I think gets flown in by Ryanair and AirFrance and Easyjet and Atlas Blue -- from wherever people don't particularly like the French and thus do not want to celebrate their Liberte Fraternite Egalite with them. We also put coloured lights and flags up in every little village square, bring out the wonky tables and chairs from the cellar, dust down the grannies and help the grandpa's find their teeth where they had put it away safely after the last 14th July celebrations, and we sing the Marseillaise with fiery zeal.
For the record: "La Marseillaise" was composed by Claude-Joseph Rouget de Lisle in 1792. It became the song of the revolution. The first stanza is:
Le jour de gloire est arrivé.
Contre nous de la tyrannie
L'étendard sanglant est levé.
Which means
Arise, children of the nation!
Our day of glory is here.
For against us we see raised
Tyranny's bloody banner!
The French composer Hector Berlioz later arranged the song for a chorus and orchestra. Where the composer normally instructs "tenors and basses," Berlioz wrote "everyone with a voice, soul, and blood in his veins." After another revolt in 1830, there was new interest in La Marseillaise. De Lisle wrote Berlioz a letter of appreciation for his arrangement, and invited Berlioz to discuss a libretto that de Lisle had written, but de Lisle died before they could meet. Hearing the rousing arrangement by Berlioz makes one want to jump up and storm the Bastille all over again.
The bit I sing the loudest is the last bit though--
Formez vos bataillons!
Marchons, marchons, qu'un sang impur
Abreuve nos sillons!
To arms, citizens!
Form your batallions!
march, march
so that the impure blood
may drench our tilled soil!
(But then -- I do tend to get carried away when the flag is flying and the bands are playing......)
Why not join in spirit,(forgive the pun) even if you cannot be in France for the occasion?
French Revolution
1 oz. brandy
2 oz. framboise
3 oz. Champagne
Mix ingredients in a flute. Garnish with a lemon twist.
Marie Antoinette
1 splash strawberry liqueur
1 splash Cointreau
1 splash calvados
1 splash fresh lemon juice
4 oz. Champagne
Combine all ingredients, except Champagne, in a shaker filled with ice. Strain into a flute and slowly add the Champagne.
Cafe de Paris Cocktail
1 1/4 oz. gin
1 tsp. Pernod
1 tsp. Half-and-Half
1 egg white
Combine all with cracked ice in a cocktail shaker. Shake well and strain into chilled cocktail glass.
Bastille Day
1 oz. Cognac
1/2 oz. lemon juice
1 tsp. bar sugar
3 oz. chilled Champagne
Shake Cognac, lemon juice, and sugar with crushed ice. Strain into fluted Champagne glass. Top with Champagne. Garnish with lemon twist, if desired.
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