Arts & Entertainment
In Other Words: Bastille Days
The Greenfield Public Library offers its choices of Bastille Days-related materials for you to check out.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of Bastille Days, one of the country's largest outdoor French-themed festivals and held right in downtown Milwaukee in Cathedral Square.
For information on the popular festival, which begins Thursday and runs through Sunday, click here.
In honor of Bastille Days here are some French-themed items available at the Greenfield Public Library:
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Citizens: a Chronicle of the French Revolution by Simon Schama, 1989: Citizens begins in the decades before the French Revolution and finishes with end of The Reign of Terror. The author takes a somewhat different historical perspective on the causes of the French Revolution. Although a big book, it isn’t a dry account of political events. Instead the author uses a dramatic narrative form to explore the the culture and society of France while providing the human side of the historical events.
Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy: Sir Percy Blakeney appears to be a vain, ineffectual Englishman, but disguised as the Scarlet Pimpernel, he rescues French aristocrats and innocents from death by the guillotine during the Reign of Terror following the French Revolution. This adventure story featuring a disguised hero set the stage for other heroes with dual identities such as Zorro, Batman, and Superman.
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Bloom’s Literary Guide to Paris by Mike Gerrard: This is a tour guide to Paris with a detailed literary and cultural history of the city. One of the book’s sections describes the city’s major literary sights including museums bookstores and theaters. There are also illustrations and maps.
La vie en rose: original soundtrack by Edith Piaf, 2007: Check out this CD for an opportunity hear the music of Edith Piaf, a woman who came to be regarded as France’s greatest popular singer.
Rick Steves’ France and Benelux, 2000- 2007 (DVD): If you can’t travel to France then you can visit vicariously through this DVD that contains eight half-hour episodes from the PBS television series Rick Steves’ Europe. Included are on-location stops at Paris, Normandy, Provence, Alsace and the French Riviera. Also included are trips to Bruges, Brussels and Amsterdam.
Kings of Pastry, (DVD), 2010: Mouth-watering documentary that follows chef Jacquy Pfeiffer as he returns to his childhood home of Alsace, France to practice for the Meilleurs Ouvriers de France pastry competition. Pfeiffer is the co-founder of Chicago’s French Pastry School.
