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July, When They Dance in the Streets in Paris, and in Tahiti Too

Prepared by Harold Stephens
Travel Correspondent for Thai Airways International

On the eve of July 14th the people of Paris dance in the streets. This is not a figure of speech, like "he's so happy he's floating on the clouds." No, this is reality. Sections of many streets in Paris are roped off and people actually dance in the streets.
The reason is, every July 14th, the people of Paris are jubilant. They celebrate the French Revolution; the storming of the Bastille in 1789; the overthrow of the Bourbon monarchy; and the establishment of the First Republic. It’s not only in Paris, however, where they dance in the streets. It’s all over France and all of their possessions around the world as well. In Tahiti, a French possesion, they call it the National Day Fete, and it’s big time there in the islands, the bigget celebration of the year.
This is the time to visit Paris, or Tahiti if you are so inclined, to go far afield for some fun. Wherever it may be, now is the time to start making plans and reservations. Royal Orchid Holidays has an exellent Paris Minibreak tour, three days and two nights, ROHS53. And for Tahiti, you can join with Air New Zealand, a Star Alliance member, for direct flights to the South Pacific.

Also, if you are planning on going, take a look at Paris Insight Guides and read about the French Revolution. It was, to say the least, one of the most interesting periods of French history. Or you might check out a video tape of MGM's film version of Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, a tragic but highly romantic tale about the revolution.

Ironic as it may be, the Place de la Bastille, as it is today, wasn't laid out until long after the revolution. The columns we see weren't erected until 1840. But to every Frenchman the Bastille has a deep significance. The Bastille was originally built in 1370 as a fort by Charles V, where he could hide in times of trouble, and became a political prison after his death. (Its first prisoner was the architect who built it.)

Five years before the Revolution, the use of the Bastille as a prison was abolished and it remained practically empty and was slated to be demolished. The garrison in early 1789 consisted of 37 Swiss soldiers and 82 other military personnel. The cannons on the towers lacked ammunition. Only three light guns in the courtyard and a few muskets on the ramparts were serviceable.

The people's attack on the fort on the 14th of July 1789 was purely symbolic. The assult lasted until five o'clock in the afternoon, when the governor surrendered the fort. He, with several officers, the Swiss guard and the other military personnel were promptly executed.

The victorious mob crowded into the prison to find seven prisoners, consisting of four foreigners, two madmen and a count who had been imprisoned at the request of his father. They were carried in triumph through the streets of Paris. Demolition of the fort started the following day and within the year the Bastille was razed to the ground.

The people of Paris, mostly poor workers and servants, were driven by misery, and then inflamed by orators, into a lust for blood that led to the Revolution and the Reign of Terror which followed.

After the mob had demolished the Bastille, they marched to Versailles and brought the king and the queen and their followers in ox carts to the Tuilleries (in front of the present day Louvre Museum) where they were kept prisonners until loosing their heads. In the Reign of Terror, not only were they, the king and queen, beheaded but even most of the early leaders of the Revolution as well.

The stage for the Terror was in the present Place de la Concorde, which, two hundred years ago, was called the Place de la Revolution. It was there the guillotine was erected and here over 13,000 heads fell, including those of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette. In Charles Dickens’ novel, Madam Defarge sat here knitting, counting heads as they rolled, adding a stitch each time the blade dropped.

Standing today on the very spot where the guillotine once stood, there is a 70-foot tall, 230 tonne obelisk, a 3,500-year old gift presented to France in 1829 by Mohammed Ali, then ruler of Egypt. If you stand in front of the Louvre in the Tuilleries Gardens, you can look west and see Le Petite Arc de Triomphe, the obelisk in the centre of the Place de le Concorde and the grand Champs Elysees all the way to the Arc de Triomphe. On July 4th, the date of America's independence, the obelisk casts a shadow across the Place de la Concorde to the U.S. Embassy.

Aside from dancing in the streets, there will be fireworks, festivals and balls throughout France on Bastille Day.

And then there is Papeete on Tahiti during the French Bastille Day Celebrations. Now there is the place. When the Tahitians celebrate, they celebrate in style. Try to picture the scene. You’ve heard of the Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and certainly of the one in Rio. What about the Beer Fest in Munich? We might even want to consider the Olympics, with the exception of the Winter Games. Take all these activities, roll them up together, and what do you have--The National Day Fete in Tahiti. It is, without doubt, the grandest festival in all the South Pacific, one that encompasses everything from canoe and outrigger racing to javelin throwing, and from wild, savage dancing contests and singing himenes to plain and simple, good old-fashioned hell raising and party carousing. There’s probably more Hinnano beer drunk during the seven days the Fete is held than there is all year-round in the islands.

The Fete is more than fun and games. It’s smells and sounds as well. The air is filled with the fragrant scent of flowers, frangipani and the Tiare Tahiti, and everyone, man and woman alike and children too, wear flowers—around their necks, wreaths on top their heads, tucked behind their ears. They parade the streets, strumming guitars, with arm loads of flowers for friends they greet.

And there are the sounds, familiar only to Tahiti. It’s the thunder of shark skin drums and wood blocks. Islanders from all the outlying islands come to compete in dancing. For weeks before the competition they practice, day and night, and the sound of their drums, like the scent of flowers, permeates the air. The island rocks with the sound of drum.

The dancing competitions are the most compelling. Teams, with anywhere from six to two dozen dancers, begin practicing months in advance. Competition is fierce, and for the spectators it’s exciting. Competitions are held at night, for six straight nights, and on the seventh night the final six teams compete.

But it isn’t dancing alone that attracts attention. There are the himene singers, women in mother hubbards. Outrigger racing is keen and competitive. Some are swift sailing craft that skim across the harbour of Papeete in the slightest breeze. The others are magnificent outriggers paddled by husky bronzed islanders. They can be as tiny as a two-man craft to as many as two dozen. Women compete too, in paris and in teams. They are as tough and robust as the men. The most challenging is the race round Moorea.

There are javelin throwers. They stand like Roman gods, in flowered sarongs, and hurl their spears at coconuts atop tall posts. In recent years cycling and even archery have been added. But it’s the dancing and drumming that holds the biggest attraction.

Every island in French Polynesia, and even some from as far away as the Cook and Tonga Islands, sends their teams, their best dancers and javelin throwers, their best drummers and outrigger crewmen and women, their best singers and cyclists.

For many of these islanders it is the first time they have been away from home, and they take the competitions seriously. They arrive on copra boats and trading boats, aboard private yachts, island ferries and French Navy gun boats.

My fondest memory of the Fete took place one year when I had my schooner Third Sea anchored in Papeete at the waterfront. There was a shortage of space for teams to do their changing of costumes, and the director of one team asked if they could use my schooner. How could I turn them down. I wrote about this incident, and other adventures in Tahiti and the islands, in my book The Last Voyage, The Story of Schooner Third Sea, and I quote from it in part here: “Competitions last for seven nights, and in keeping with customs of old, dance teams present themselves before Queen Pomare, the last reigning queen of Tahiti, and the French Lord Admiral, the governor of French Polynesia. The role of Queen Pomare, who died in 1877, is re-enacted by a lovely Tahitian woman. She is seated in a fanback rattan chair at the edge of the stage, and seated next to her, in white naval uniform, is the Lord Admiral. The greatest honor I could have had was to be asked to play the part of the Lord Admiral for the fete. For seven nights I sat with the beautiful queen, in our rattan chairs, while the dancers and drummers made their presentations to us, and then danced before us. Who could ask for a better honor, or a better seat?

“The dance team that won the competitions that year was the same team that used the schooner, and they celebrated their victory aboard. It was also our last night in Tahiiti. Wine flowed and the music and drums continued all night. When the last visitor stepped ashore we untied the mooring lines, cast off and set sail. No ship had a more glorious departure!”

Readers, I hope, will understand why I like the Tahitian Fete, and Tahiti.

Next week we will visit another island, Penang, off the west coast of Malaysia.

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

Dear Mr. Stephens,

We would like to visit Ayutthaya and we see on the map that it is on the Menam River. Are there ferries that run up river from Bangkok to Auytthyha? How long does it take? Can we come back to Bangkiok by air? Marlyn Hodges, Miami, Florida.

Dear Ms. Hodges,

There is no ferry service from Bankkok to Ayutthaya but there are cruise boats, many coverted rice barges, that make the trip. Travellers go by boat and return by bus. Lunch is served aboard. There are also overnight boat trips, and these really are first class. I would suggest that you check with Royal Orchid Holidays at your nearest Thai Airways International office. ROH does have overnight river trips. Another note, you are probably looking at an old map. The name of the river is the Chao Phraya River. Menam in Thai means river. —HS

Harold Stephens
Bangkok
E-mail: ROH Weekly Travel

Note: The article is the personal view of the writer and does not necessarily reflect the view of Thai Airways International Public Company Limited.

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Place de la Concorde, where the guillotine once
stood