Last Thursday (July 14) was Bastille Day, France’s independence day, and our group was determined to celebrate like the French do. On Wednesday we only had class in the morning (which was usual) and then we got Thursday off for the holiday. However when combined with our trip to Paris on Friday we really got a four and a half day weekend, which was awesome.
This holiday weekend started off a little ignomiously for Susan, Mary, and I. We tried to take the bus to the train station so that we could buy tickets to go to Nice next weekend but instead we ended up on the wrong bus and a little disoriented. We estimated it would only take an hour but it turned into a saga. Cold, wet (think Ohio in April), and 200 Euros poorer we finally returned to the dorm ready to take on Bastille Day at the Bol de Pompiers, an outdoor celebration thrown by the firefighters. Normally when it rains here I don’t really feel like venturing into the Centre Ville but I would have gone even if it was a monsoon. Thankfully, the rain let up and although it was kind of chilly at least we were dry.
We took the bus to the Place Wilson, which is this really large roundabout that we normally pass through to get to the Place de la Liberation, our usual Centre-Ville stop. From there, our directions were vague, but everyone had told us that we would be able to hear it and that we could just follow the noise. When I first heard about the Bol de Pompiers, I first envisioned a charming, old world style party with lots of families and food and fireworks. Then someone told me it was more like an outdoor discotheque, which really threw me for a loop because I had trouble merging those two images.
It was basically a city sanctioned rager. It was awesome.
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| Bol de Pompiers |
The “Bol” was held in a parking lot between two large apartment buildings, with police and other types of security standing at the entrance and checking bags. When we got there, the crowd was pretty large, but not so much so that we couldn’t walk around or that I felt claustrophobic – it was a great size. There was a mini dance floor about two inches off of the ground that had been constructed so we headed immediately towards that, although really the only reason we knew where it was at was because the people dancing there were slightly taller. When we got there, French techno music was playing and there were strobe lights flashing all around and images were being projected onto the sides of the apartment buildings. Dancing was awesome because French people don’t really grind – they mostly just kind of jump around and dance crazily, which works for me haha. Periodically, they would spray what I thought was fake snow but then realized was soap all over the crowd that we were in, which really added to the “outdoor discotheque” vibe. At some point, they also started playing American songs, which was really fun, because we could sing along with the lyrics. The first couple songs were ones that I expected – a Lady Gaga and something by the Black Eyed Peas. But then they did Barbie Girl, “Gimme Gimme Gimme” by ABBA, “You’re the One That I Want” from Grease, and then the YMCA (which was hilarious to watch all the French people dance to). It was a blast. I wish they had places in the US that played music like this on a regular basis. It was just so refreshing to go out dancing to music that wasn’t just rap or hip-hop.
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| Susan, Me, and Mary |
(As I’m writing this, Mary, Susan and I are doing our laundry and listening to Grease songs and ABBA haha)
We left the “Bol” a little bit before it ended because we didn’t want to get caught in a crush of people, and we walked to a bar a couple blocks away on the Rue de Berberssey that we’ve been to before. Most us girls just got some coke and then we called a cab (which took ages to come) and went back to the dorm.
The next day was actually Bastille Day, and after we had all sufficiently slept in, a large group of us decided to take the bus to the beach at Lake Kir and then hang out there all day until the fireworks that night. Even though we had to change buses once, it still was a pretty quick trip. None of us had thought to bring food, so we were happy to see “Bar de la Plage” (Beach Bar), which is a restaurant-road side stand combination perched on the side of the road that edges the beach. The beach itself was a little smaller than we thought that it would be, but it makes sense because Lake Kir is actually a man-made lake so the Dijon government probably didn’t see the need for miles and miles of sand.
Thanks to the lovely, April-esque weather that we have been having, the water was largely too cold to go into and even just sitting on the beach was a little chilly at times. The major upside to the clouds, however, was that I didn’t get sunburned. We mainly sat around and talked, watched French teenagers make out, and walked around the edge of the lake. At one point, some French people around our age were playing American Football on the beach, which I thought was interesting. Later in the evening, I bought some kir from the restaurant-bar, which is wine mixed with this black current syrup. Its named after the same man that made the lake, and it just seemed appropriate (and was very tasty).
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| O-H-I-O at Lac Kir |
The fireworks show was probably the coolest fireworks display I have ever seen. They had a flotilla of small barges out in the lake that the fireworks were launched off of, and we were in the perfect spot to see them. The actual fireworks were amazing and extremely well coordinated with the music. Instead of playing patriotic or popular songs to accompany the fireworks, however, all of the music was techno or electronic – no words at all. It was a little weird for me at first, because I was expecting at least the Marseillaise or something, but I got used to it. Because of these different types of music, I kind of think that fireworks play a different role on Bastille Day than they do on the Fourth of July, at least in Dijon. Most of the time in the United States, the fireworks on the Fourth inspire sentiments of patriotism in me, because at some point they usually have a patriotic music montage. But the fireworks in Dijon seemed less about patriotism and nationalistic pride and more about artistic expression and aesthetic experience. Its just one of those little things that is different between the two countries, but says volumes about our different outlooks on life.
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| The fireworks at the lake |
I’ll try to put some pictures up soon and write about my weekend in Paris!
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