Bastille Day - Potluck Picnic - Share something French!

Bastille Day is July 14th! So let's have a potluck picnic together where we all bring something to share that is French. Pate, wine, cheese, baguettes, crepes, toast, fries, bouillabaisse, French dip, pastries, French roast coffee, croissants, ? or at least French inspired! Okay, this should be a lot of fun! Last year, Chef Carlos, one of the Cordon Bleu cooking instructors contributed his awesome Boef Bourgone using all the correct ingredients and techniques that a pro chef should... But then he's worked with Wolfgang, the two Hot Tamales and countless famous chefs and restaurants.

This is a potluck, please bring something French inspired to share. If you like wine, bring some French wine or champagne to share. While there are rules against bringing/drinking alcohol in the park, we will be in a secluded area so it is unlikely we'll get busted...

Anyway, I got this idea from another Meetup group that's having a road trip up to Santa Barbara to the French Festival Click here (https://www.frenchfestival.com/) and I thought, what with the price of gas, we don't need to drive 2 hours each way and spend $60 in gas when we can have our own French Festival and potluck right here in Griffith Park. No crowds, crowded freeways, traffic jams, overpriced festival crap food! We can all share and bring good stuff to share and drink and enjoy a relaxed day at the park which is shaded all day and is about 10+ degrees cooler than downtown LA. Unfortunately, they will not allow us to cook or bbq anything at this location. So anything you bring, you must be able to keep it cold or hot as necessary.

I have to get here early like 8:30am to secure the location, so if anyone wants to join me early, please comment as such and I'll bring my French Press, coffee and croissants for breakfast. Or maybe I'll bring my backpack stove and cook French Toast!

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Need a recipe idea? How about Boeuf Bourguignon Click here for a Food Network TV recipe (https://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_20177,00.html?rsrc=like)

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THE HISTORY OF BASTILLE DAY
Holiday Info OVERVIEW OF BASTILLE DAY

Bastille Day is the French national holiday, celebrated on 14 July each year. It is called Fête Nationale (National Holiday) in France. It commemorates the 1790 Fête de la Fédération, held on the first anniversary of the storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789; the Fête de la Fédération was seen as a symbol of the uprising of the modern French "nation," and of the reconciliation of all the French inside the constitutional monarchy which preceded the First Republic, during the French Revolution.

HISTORY OF BASTILLE DAY

The Storming of the Bastille

On 5 May 1789, Louis XVI convened the Estates-General to hear their grievances. The deputies of the Third Estate representing the common people (the two others were clergy and nobility) decided to break away and form a National Assembly.

On 20 June the deputies of the Third Estate took the Tennis Court Oath (named after the place where they had gathered which was a place where an ancestor of tennis, the "jeu de paume" was played), swearing not to separate until a Constitution had been established. To show their support, the people of Paris stormed the Bastille, a prison where people were jailed by arbitrary decision of the King (lettre de cachet). The Bastille was, in particular, known for holding political prisoners whose writings had displeased the royal government. Thus the Bastille was a symbol of the absolutism of the monarchy.

There were only 7 inmates housed at the time of the siege. The storming of the Bastille was more important as a rallying point and symbolic act of rebellion than a practical act of defiance. No less important in the history of France, it was not the image typically conjured up of courageous French patriots storming the Bastille and freeing hundreds of oppressed peasants. However, it did immediately inspire preparations amongst the peasants for the very real threat of retaliation.

Shortly after the storming of the Bastille, on 26 August, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was proclaimed.

History of the Celebration

On 30 June 1878, a feast had been set in Paris by official decision to honour the Republic (the event was immortalised by a painting by Claude Monet). On the 14 July 1879, another feast took place, with a semi-official aspect; the events of the day included a military review in Longchamp, a reception in the Chambre of Deputies, organised and presided by Léon Gambetta, and a Republican Feast in the pré Catelan with Louis Blanc and Victor Hugo. All through France, as Le Figaro wrote on the 16, "people feasted a lot to honour the Bastille".