Today, on the 200th anniversary of the day in 1789 when the Bastille fell, it is only fitting that Chicagoans join the French in celebrating the bicentennial of the French Revolution.
Although other ethnic groups now may dominate in Chicago, our city`s early history runs rich with feats of Frenchmen who were the first to encounter the Indians as they made their way through the woodlands and tall grasses where wildlife roamed, carrying their canoes across the portage where the city now stands.
In 1673, Father Jacques Marquette came to the area to gather the souls of the Indians for God, while French trappers came to gather furs for trade. Furthering our French connection, Chicago teacher and historian Charles Balesi has uncovered a letter written in that same year by French explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle that was sent back to France from the place De La Salle would eventually call Chi-ca-gou, from the Indian word for ”place of the wild onions.”
The French, as they traveled the world, intermingled with the peoples they met, says Balesi. Thus Jean-Baptiste Point du Sable was born in Santo Domingo (now the Dominican Republic) of a black slave mother and a French father. The well-educated Du Sable came to Chicago in about 1779 and built a house and became a trader. Others followed the example of this Frenchman and permanent settlement of the city began.
This past gives Chicagoans cause not only to celebrate liberte and egalite with the French but to draw on its own heritage of fraternite with them as well. In fact, Chicago`s grand, ongoing, year-long celebration of the French bicentennial is mentioned in the French edition of Elle as an example of the activities planned for the occasion throughout the United States.
All the major cities in the U.S.-from New York to Los Angeles, Detroit to Omaha, Houston to Minneapolis-are joining in the festivities, says Chicago`s French consul general, Richard Narich, who cites the longstanding friendship between the two countries.
”The first important link was established during the War of Independence when the French helped the Americans to get their freedom,” he says. ”The second came with the participation of Americans in World War I and World War II.” Ideology intertwines these momentous events. Says Narich, ”We share common values of democracy and freedom.”
Late last year, this friendship helped bring about the 200-member Chicago Committee on the French Revolution, sponsored by the Sara Lee Corp. With 10,000 employees in France, Sara Lee exemplifies the Franco-American business connection.
The committee has coordinated dozens of cultural, educational and sporting events that continue throughout the bicentennial year. For instance, in ”Pen and Press in Revolutionary France,” an exhibit curated by Balesi, original documents from the Newberry Library`s collection illustrate the heroism of the revolution and the horror of the Reign of Terror that ensued.
The revolutionary period, says Balesi, is still a ”hot potato” in France. About 400 books published in France this year have dissected every aspect of the period.
Chicagoans will be able to draw their own conclusions after tuning in Friday to WFMT (FM 98.7) for a six-hour re-creation, ”Bastille: A Revolution on the Radio,” based on original diaries, letters, pamphlets and court records. What they won`t hear is Marie Antoinette say ”Let them eat cake.”
She may have been arrogant, but she was not the one who made this suggestion in response to the news that the poor could not afford the price of bread.
But listeners will be present when the Third Estate, made up of the common people, declares itself a National Assembly and meets at the royal tennis court at Versailles. Mirabeau will say, ”We shall leave our seats only by the power of bayonets. No one can give orders to the assembled nation.”
And bayonets it was. On that memorable July 14 in 1789, an agitator cried, ”Parisians are being slaughtered like sheep. Will you not march on the Bastille?” The fall of that ancient fortress and the Declaration of the Rights of Man which followed it are still cause for celebration.
The French call their national holiday simply le quatorze juillet-the 14th of July-and celebrations are long, joyous and noisy. ”People spend all day getting ready to have a good meal in the evening, and all the restaurants are fully booked. And in discotheques and cabarets they re-create the taking of the Bastille,” says Sophie Meissonier, maitre d` at the Cafe de Paris at the French Hotel Sofitel in Rosemont.
Everywhere in France, she says, there is dancing in the streets, before and after the post-dinner fireworks. ”You can`t expect to sleep that night,” she says, ”because there are firecrackers and music until 6 o`clock in the morning when people have a breakfast like a small brunch with pate and croissants and wine.”
In Chicago, people will be dining at French restaurants that have created special menus for the occasion. (For a roundup of menus and other events, see The Friday Guide in the center of this week`s section.) They will be dancing in the streets, too, at many outdoor celebrations. The Chicago Committee on the French Revolution has organized a free event at Cityfront Center featuring French singer Sacha Distel, known as the French Frank Sinatra, as well as mimes, illusionists, music and dancing.
Among the other outdoor celebrations, the Hotel Sofitel will have a waiter`s race and a chocolate mousse-eating contest topped in the evening by a grand finale of fireworks. The French Consulate will hold an invitation-only reception at the Palmer House in the Empire Room, an architectural reminder of France`s history.
The bicentennial events throughout the rest of the year will celebrate the many contributions the French have made to the art de vivre (art of living), which more people could enjoy after the revolution. Cafes became popular gathering places and common people began going out to restaurants.
The revolution liberated French fashion, too. The innovations of French designers, who continue to revolutionize what women wear, will be highlighted in fall promotions both at Bloomingdale`s and Marshall Field`s.
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In sports, a bike race will underline the importance France places on the sport as host of Tour de France. French excellence in navigation will be symbolized by a French boat, Liberte `89, which will participate in the Chicago to Mackinac Island Yacht Race.
Paintings by the French Impressionists in the permanent collection of the Art Institute and the exhibit ”American Painters in France: 1830-1930”
at the Terra Museum are a tribute to France`s contribution to modern art and to the longstanding cultural connection between Chicago and France.
But the overriding reason to toast the French this year, of course, is for the ideology that sparked the French Revolution and ignited a new spirit everywhere.
Narich says that Bastille Day is not only a national holiday but an international one as well. ”In France, the Revolution of 1789 marked a break between the past-the monarchy-and the future-a republic,” notes the French consul, ”but it also quickened the pace of history around the world.” The first article of the Declaration of the Rights of Man reads, ”All men are born and remain free and have equal rights.”
”Few are the ideas that changed the world,” says Narich. ”1789 is one of them.”