Celebrate Bastille Day From a Safe Distance

Time was--and not too long ago either--that they boogied on the boulevards of Paris. Time was too that they stormed the Bastille, the dread prison that was the despised symbol of the aristocracy, and burned it to the cobblestones.

The Bastille, of course, is long gone--200 years, to be precise--and the street dancing that for decades highlighted France’s Independence Day has pierred out over the last 20 years until only a few quartiers halfheartedly maintain the tradition.

Bicentennial Year

This year, though, is special; the bicentennial of the roots of liberte, egalite and fraternite (not to mention sororite ), and if Paris isn’t burning next week, it will at least be blue-white-and-red-hot. All things considered, maybe even a good place to avoid.

“If you can’t be in Paris--which is going to be an absolute zoo--this is your next-best bet,” says Steve Hoegerman, organizer of Santa Barbara’s second annual French Festival. “We’ll have everything but the fireworks--we had them last week--plus some things the French never even dreamed of.”

Like what?

“Like our new Poodle Parade,” the ever-sanguine Hoegerman says; “like a cancan contest for little girls. . . .”

Everything, it seems, but dancing in the streets. But as they say in the old country (pick an old country; any old country): ne vous inquietez pas. There is dancing, after all, and if you’re an incurable francophile, you can have the best of all weekend worlds, to wit: At UCLA Friday night--the official date of the revolution’s 200th birthday--there will indeed be open-air dancing, not exactly in the street but in the Perloff Quad. Survivors may then opt to drive the next day to Santa Barbara, where the Fete Francaise--featuring everything the UCLA ball has left out--will be held next Saturday and Sunday.

But first flings first. Colette Boehm, president of L.A.’s Bastille Day Committee, has orchestrated a Bal Populaire, the traditional no-holds-barred dancing scene of the French streets. Reluctant to rue the day, the committee has toned down the affair slightly, nevertheless lacing the dance scene with a little authentic Gallic spice. Under a lattice of illuminated tricolor balloons, Lo Jai, a locally renowned dance group all the way from Toulouse, will entertain, while Christian Di Maggio will massage his accordion to duplicate that ineffable sound long associated with the City of Lights.

Lots of French Food

Five French restaurants will provide food at what Boehm calls “a reasonable price,” while French wines, Champagnes, mineral water and the inevitable Orangina also will be on sale. Jugglers, magicians, the usual assortment of street artists, will mingle from 8 p.m. until somewhere around midnight. “We would have liked to finish with a spectacle of son et lumiere, “ Boehm laments, “but it costs too much. Instead, we’ll be lighting the sky as we release the balloons.”

Cost is $10 per person, available at the door or at the UCLA Central Ticket Office in Pauley Pavilion. The Perloff Quad is near the Olympic tennis courts; ask at any gate. For information, call Boehm at (213) 472-5179.

Meanwhile, up the coast in the high-rent district, Santa Barbara’s French Festival is hoping to top last year’s inaugural, attended by well over 10,000. Returning to Oak Park is artist Tony Ciccarelli’s three-story Eiffel Tower (celebrating its 100th anniversary--the real one, not the Barbarian model). Returning are what one gloriously squiffed festival-goer last year called the “windering monstrels.” Returning are Gabrielle, the imminently famous mime; the roving flower girls (another anachronism, long absent from the Paris scene); the jugglers and the Antique Academy of Genteel Dance (sing or clog along, if you like) and the bereted artists at their easels and the redolent French loaves baked up by Marc Olivier.

Fashion shows will display French creations; antique French cars will be on view; Peugeot will give bicycle demonstrations and continue to resist Hoegerman’s entreaties for a cycling Tour de Santa Barbara (“maybe next year”).

With the exception of food and drink--both French, of course--the festival is free. Hours are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. both days. To reach Oak Park, take Pueblo or Mission offramps from U.S. 101, away from the sea; then follow the signs. Information: (805) 569-1636.