Bastille Day fete not just for Francais

ALEX COOLMAN

If Pierre Gambini, Alix Moutier and Corinne Coquoin-Lapenne didn’t

seem very talkative Friday afternoon, it was mostly because they were

being queried in scattered, hesitant English.

The trio are members of an Air France crew, and they responded much

more readily to questions, posed by an interpreter, in their own tongue.

French was the language of the day at The Sutton Place Hotel in Newport

Beach, where the three crew members were celebrating Bastille Day.

The hotel throws a bash every year to mark the day in 1789 when French peasants stormed the Bastille, a state prison that symbolized the

country’s autocratic government. But liberty, equality and fraternity --

the ideals associated with the French Revolution -- had far less

attention at the shindig than champagne, music and toothsome treats.

That was just fine with the partygoers.

“This is one of those don’t-miss parties,” said Balboa resident Bob

McCaffrey, who says he’s been marking Bastille Day at the Sutton for

about eight years.

As the crowd of revelers mingled on the nearly blinding sunny deck of

the hotel’s Calypso Pool Deck, a band swung through a rendition of “Baby

Face” and strategically stationed catering tents proffered their tastes

of French or quasi-French snacks.

One tent was offering o7 pissaladieref7 , a pizza-like

concoctionwith onions, anchovies and black olives that seemed

custom-designed to produce a virulent case of halitosis. Another station,

as if to offset the pissaladiere, served up milder, sweeter fare, such as

berries, ice cream and eclairs.

And over at the wine tent, a glass of La Croix du Cass Bordeaux was a

popular, extravagant choice, while others sipped a more affordable Grand

Ardeche chardonnay. Wine coordinator and maitre d’ Dominique Roche said

he was trying to keep the savvy crowd as happy as possible.

“Alors,” he exclaimed, “the customers, they have become familiar with

French wine, and they know how to recognize a fine one.”