Bastille Day in NYC guide
Celebrate Bastille Day in NYC with our guide to the best Bastille Day events, French restaurants and outdoor parties
Ooh la la! Francophiles have their choice of fetes to celebrate Bastille Day. NYC’s annual events include street fairs, outdoor parties, dance events and performances (the cancan!), and more great things to do outside.
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When is Bastille Day?
Officially, Bastille Day is on Friday, July 14, 2017. The holiday is always held on July 14 to celebrate French National Day (July 14, 1789). When the French holiday does not fall on a Sunday, NYC celebrations are held the Sunday before, so this year you can celebrate Bastille Day in NYC on Sunday, July 9, 2017.
What is Bastille Day?
Bastille Day, also known as French National Day, is a holiday celebrating the beginning of the French Revolution and the Storming of the Bastille.
Where is Bastille Day?
While the most popular Bastille Day celebration takes place on 60th Street between Lexington Avenue and Fifth Avenue on Sunday, July 9, there are multiple fetes happening all over the city through Sunday, July 16.
Best things to do for Bastille Day
French Restaurant Week 2017
Celebrate France's Independence Day—the American way—by stuffing your face with delicious delicacies from the many participating bistros and brasseries this year. You can order on special prix-fixe dinner menus for $17.89, $35.78 or $178.90, if it's a special occasion. And some of the highlights include meals from Bistro Cassis, Petit Poulet, Maison Hugo, La Camelle and more during Bastille Week. So wear your beret and dine like the French!
Bastille Day on 60th Street
Celebrate France's Independance Day at this Gallic fair filled with bakery bites (crêpes, eclairs), plus performances by can-can dancers strutting their stuff to the jubilant Hungry March Band. Once the festival fatigue sits in, enjoy nibbles of fromage and baguettes, and sips of beer and various wines and catch a special film screening of Dalida at 5:30pm.
Champagne & Chocolate Tasting
The French do many things well—art, cuisine, fashion. Near the tippy-top of that list is, of course, their rich chocolates and smooth champagne. During Bastille Day on 60th St, take a break from all the rowdiness outside and head indoors to the eighth floor of the French Institute Alliance Française for a decadent tasting. You can try France’s most prestigious champagnes and pair the sips with European chocolates from Neuhaus, La Maison du Chocolate and more mouthwatering bites.
Wine, Beer, Cocktail & Cheese Tasting
Drink like the French do during this delicious wine, beer and cocktail tasting during the Bastille Day on 60th Street celebration. There are three sessions, during which you can sample vino from Sud de France, brews via Kroenbourg, a cocktail from Ricard, and much on a selection of cheeses and fresh baguettes. Best part? A ticket only sets you back $25. Done deal.
Bastille Day Ball
Now in its 30th year, the French consulate’s bangin’ celebration features drinks, prize giveaways and music from Chloé Perrier and the French Heart Jazz Band. You’ll shout, “Viva la France!” during this dance fest.
Marie Antoinette with Pastries and Champagne
Relive Sofia Coppola’s divine feminine fantasy of fashion, matrimony and hard partying in Versailles, France, starring Kirsten Dunst as the empress of opulence, and featuring one of the best soundtracks of the 2000s. You’ll be pampered like a queen with a glass of champagne and an exquisite puff pastry from Ladurée.
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Great Bastille Day celebration in New York at 60th and 5th Avenue. over 20,000 people were there with food sellers and other entertainment. It was a perfect day...no rain....and a great crowd. The organizers even provided great enterainement. There were clowns dressed in colorful costumes blowing up balloons and also 3 beautiful girls doing the French Can Can dance dressed in eye catching costumes. I took a video of their dancing....it can be viewed at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkRC_l69Tl8