Bastille Day Comes to Tribeca

Can-can dancers, accompanied by the Michael Arenella Trio, performed on West Broadway as part of the annual Bastille Day celebration in Tribeca. Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib

Bastille Day festivities came to West Broadway in Tribeca on July 9, with a pétanque tournament accompanied by high-kicking, cartwheeling  can-can dancers, vintage tunes by the Michael Arenella Trio and an abundance of French wines and spirits.

For the sixth year, sand courts for pétanque games (similar to bocce) occupied the two-block stretch of street between Beach and White and French was the prevailing tongue. Event sponsor and Nice native George Forgeois, whose restaurant Cercle Rouge overlooks the annual swirl of activity, said that what is everyday in France—the games, the drinks, the relaxed sociability—is now something exceptional for French New Yorkers away from home.

"It's our culture, it reminds us of where we come from and we treat it very special," Forgeois said. "And all the young French people, they come to me and they thank me for that day."

For the non-French, it was a special day as well. "It's fun, it's really mellow," said Lorissa Rinehart, a pétanque player who was taking the day off from her job at a museum consultancy firm nearby on Hudson Street. ("My boss plays pétanque as well so he understands.")

Rinehart's team had won their first game, lost the second and had a third coming up. But like so many that afternoon, she had more than pétanque on her mind.

"I'm going to enjoy some rosé in the middle of the afternoon," she said, "which is a rare treat for me."

Jasmin Estrella, who normally works in a pub on the Upper East Side, was dancing joyfully next to a game on one of the sand courts, a happy distraction to the nearby players.

"I come to check out the scene every year," said Estrella.

Because she's a fan of the game?

"I love French boys," she grinned.