La Giraudière celebrates the national festival of Bastille Day
(Pour lire ce post de blog en français, cliquez ici: Bon 14 Juillet)
Last Friday was the national festival of the French Republic- Bastille Day. This public holiday in France was established by law in 1880 to commemorate two events: the storming of the Bastille in 1789 and the ‘Fête de la Fédération’ in 1790.
Every year, the festival begins with a big military parade on the Champs-Élysées in Paris and other parades or military ceremonies in most big French towns. Spectacular firework displays are also very popular, normally taking place on the evening of the 13th or 14th of July. Apart from that, it is a day of eating, drinking, and coming together.
Here at La Giraudière, our experience was exactly as described above. The celebrations began on Thursday morning, when our volunteers shared breakfast with the festival committee in Brossac. This meal consisted of bread, cheese, coffee and, of course, red wine! It was a good opportunity to socialise with the local people and practise some French.
After breakfast, we worked to prepare things for the firework display that evening.
About twelve hours later, we returned for dinner. The meal was very similar to breakfast- lots of bread, cheese and also some meat.
After three or four glasses of wine, everyone headed to the dancefloor and we danced the night away. Paul even tried his hand at being a barman…
