Bastille Day 101

The Story of Bastille Day as told by the experts at Paris on Ponce

Once upon a time, in a magical land filled with poodles and baguettes there was a king. He wasn’t known as a very bright king, but he was a snappy dresser and was known to dance a mean Charleston.

He was married to a beautiful princess who was renowned as a lover of sparkly shoes and very big hair. They lived in a très grande castle and watched with a cautious eye over the lowly commoners that worked their fields. See, these people were peasants, and entitled peasants at that! They had a lot of high falutin’ ideas about owning their own land, voting and not having to turn over their brides to the local clergy and noblemen on their wedding night. Jerks.

So then there was this thing where the whole country ran out of food for a while (probably those dumb peasants were eating too much) the queen apparently recommended that they eat cake instead. Which is smart, because anything with frosting is way more fun than anything without. (She was a hoot, that girl!)

Well, those ruffians couldn’t appreciate her sound advice (probably lactose intolerant), plus they were ticked off that she had wisely incarcerated some troublemaking writers who were stirring the waters with crazy talk about unfair taxation and getting to own one’s own children. So what did they do? On July 14th, 1789 they went to the Bastille prison and just let everyone out! Derange! The streets were overrun with theories and concepts of “Liberté!”, “Egalité!” and “Fraternité!”. They got so drunk on their equality kick that they actually asked the beautiful queen and her dancing king to maybe go somewhere else.

Then they accidentally cut off their heads. It happens.

Oh well, the important thing is that every year those crazy French people celebrate those kooky notions of brotherhood, equality, and liberty for all (Which, surprisingly, has worked out pretty well.) with a big fat party. And since we, at our little bohemian playground are full of such similar fancy notions, we want in on it too! So come and celebrate with us!

Paris on Ponce & PoP Marché: Why stop now?