Bastille Day is a celebration of the victorious French Revolution. On July 12th the Audubon Park Garden District hosted a Bastille Day Festival at 1603 Winter Park Road, which turned out to be a church. As Terry and I arrived, it was starting to drizzle. The weather didn’t stop Marie Antoinette from posing for photos and signing autographs. Another photo opportunity was a well oiled guillotine. Anyone could stick their neck out for a photo if they dared. I stood in the entry vestibule of the church to keep my sketch out of the rain.
A small outdoor market featured Bamapana Vintage, Lady Day Vintage, Whisk and Bowl, The Crepe Company, La Femme du Fromage, The Yum Yum Truck, OhLaLa Petanque Club, and Olde Hearth Bread Company. Inside the church courtyard there was a wine and cheese tasting going on but this was a ticketed event that Terry and I hadn’t signed up for. I pressed my nose up to the window to see that the tasting room was packed. The courtyard also had some french themed art and a game of pin the hat on Napoleon. No one was playing the game, so I wasn’t tempted to sketch. The guillotine was moved out of the rain into the covered courtyard and I followed it to complete my sketch. Who would have the nerve to move a guillotine during a public execution? It turned out that a photographer was in charge and he snapped photos of anyone willing to kneel down. I’m still convinced that those picture boxes are a passing fad. There was supposed to be baguette fencing but I never witnessed it.