Get Ready for Brooklyn's 2015 Bastille Day Celebration

 Bastille Day will be celebrated in Brooklyn on Sunday, July 12 on Smith Street in its usual fabulous manner.

Photo: MK Metz

French folk and those who love them will crowd Smith Street to drink Pastis, watch the petanque tournament, stick their heads in the guillotine, eat French food and party at Bar Tabac, a major sponsor.

The north end of the street will be closed off and covered in sand for the annual petanque tournament, near Bar Tabac (128 Smith St. at Dean Street).

John Quadrozzi has been donating and spreading the sand with his cement trucks for the past 11 years to create the petanque courts. The food and drink come from Smith Street restaurants and shops. Competitors in the petanque tournament come from all over the world.

Petanque, pronounced "pay-tonk", is related to the Italian bowling game called 'bocce'.Only it's French.

In petanque, competitors throw metal balls (boules), trying to get close to a little ball called a "pig" (cochonnet).

The Brooklyn event is the biggest Bastille celebration in the U.S.  The event was founded by Bette Stoltz along with restaurants Bar Tabac and Robin des Bois (now shuttered), and is sponsored by French apéritif company Ricard.

The actual holiday, which commemorates the storming of the Bastill in 1789, taks place on July 14 but in Brooklyn, it always takes place on Sunday.

Previous posts on this topic:

- The French Storm Brooklyn's Smith Street for Bastille Day 2014
- Bastille Day in Brooklyn this Sunday: Petanque AND the Final World Cup Game 2014
- The French Get Their Party On in Brooklyn for Bastille Day 2013
- Good Times at Brooklyn's Bastille Day 2012
- 2012 Bastille Day Coming Up
- Bastille Day 2011
- 2011 Bastille Day Coming Up
- Brooklyn's Bastille Day, 2010
- Brooklyn's 2010 Bastille Day Celebration Looking Big 
- Brooklyn Bastille Day 2009 -- Great Day, Big Crowds
- Bastille Day 2009 in Brooklyn  
- Bastille Day in Brooklyn: The French Conquer Smith Street (2008)
- Brooklyn's Bastille Day: Smith Street, Sunday (coming up 2008)
- Bastille Day in Brooklyn -- La Rue de Smith Sautait! (2007)

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