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French Revelers Celebrate Bastille Day in TriBeCa

Can-can dancers performed at TriBeCa's Bastille Day celebration, July 14, 2011.
Can-can dancers performed at TriBeCa's Bastille Day celebration, July 14, 2011.
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DNAinfo/Julie Shapiro

TRIBECA — La Revolution came to TriBeCa Thursday, as the city's French and Francophiles alike celebrated Bastille Day.

Petanque players filled sand courts on West Broadway with spirited shouts, while revelers belted "La Marseillaise," the French national anthem, applauded can-can dancers and downed French wines and liquors.

"It's great — it reminds me of my childhood," said Andre Zalc, 79, a Queens resident who left France in 1950. "In France, it's even more unbelievable."

The celebration in honor of the storming of the Bastille prison during the French Revolution in 1789 is often compared to the Fourth of July.

The TriBeCa festival, sponsored by Cercle Rouge, drew hundreds of people from all over the city to the restaurant's block starting at noon on Thursday, and the partiers said they planned to continue celebrating well into the night.

Cercle Rouge owner George Forgeois, 53, said he was thrilled to bring the festival back to TriBeCa after being unable to secure a permit last year.

"I'm really proud to be French, and since I'm very far from my home, I'm even more proud," said Forgeois, who moved to New York in 1979. "Since I can afford to do it, I do it."

Pascal Petiteau, 42, a Midtown resident who was born in France, stood with his team at the petanque courts, carefully tossing small, silver balls. The game, similar to bocce, but with an overhand throw, is hard to find anywhere in New York, participants said.

"For us, it's great," Petiteau said of Bastille Day. "We're able to meet some French people once a year."

Even those who aren't French enjoyed taking in the scene, along with the array of brasserie food.

Gareth Howells, 32, an English native who lives in Harlem, said he briefly wondered if he ought to celebrate the triumph of one of England's historical rivals — but he soon dismissed the thought.

"The Hundred Years' War was a long time ago," Howells said. "We're all friends now."