"Bastille Day in Seattle" by cmmgrove Vive la cancan! Vive la fishnets! Vive la Seattlest Flickr pool!......

You can't get a drink at any of the French restaurants around the Market because it's the freaking Fourth of July. Elbow-to-elbow, accordion music, where do these people come from, anyway? Next to a Dumpster on Pike Place, two plump, tatooed gals on a smoke break are asking themselves that very question while Seattlest, in search of a beverage, records the conversation. "Bastyr Day," one of them says. "The French Revolution." "French Revolution?" says the......

BASTILLE DAY AT THE MARKET: Seattle's French restaurants are in Francophile overdrive tonight in celebration of French independence. Le Pichet (1933 First Ave.) starts its annual party at 6 p.m. and features Gypsy jazz until 11 p.m., when the d.j. takes over. Maximilien (81A Pike St.) has a special three-course dinner tonight for $35 and an accordion player. And Cafe Campagne (86 Pine St.) tops them all: a street fair is happening in Post Alley......

We were just down at Cafe Campagne's Bastille Day festivities in Post Alley; they have a little velvet rope entrance at either end of their part of the alley, and you can buy glasses of wine or beer, and then sausage or beef brochettes (i.e., kebabs) or baguette sandwiches, all for between $5-$10 each. We found the crowd to be a mix of Euro-people, Europhiles, and tourists. They're going to be at it until 11pm,......

Jesus, this is embarrassing. Bastille Day celebrates the liberation of a particularly pungent batch of cheese from the dungeons of the old prison in 1789 (along with seven prisoners) on the 14th of July (le Quatorze). Except here -- where as usual we're a day late and a euro short -- the Seattle Bastille Day festivities are being held on Sunday the 15th at the Seattle Center. What fun is that? The ideal would be......

We're serving Bastille Day cold, apparently, this Sunday at Seattle Center. In Paris, a brigade of activist clowns is parading after the usual militaristic tomtommery. No word on whether there will headbutting. Anyway, our Bastille celebrations are loin de Paris, at Fisher Pavilion from 11am to 6pm on July 16. (We shake our heads sadly just typing that.) There will be music, non-profit booths, and a Citroen exhibition. For the foodies, there are two......