The Parisian bakery Paul on Pennsylvania Avenue NW hopes to recreate the Bastille Day revelry of the old Les Halles era on Thursday by starting a new tradition: runners racing around the U.S. Navy Memorial plaza with a baguette. Full details after the jump.

What: BASTILLE DAY BAGUETTE RELAY RACE at PAUL Bakery and Café

To commemorate France’s National Holiday, PAUL – France’s leading bakery – invites the public to come have some fun and participate in a “Baguette Relay Race” which will take place in front of PAUL in Penn Quarter, where relay team members will take turns running a lap around the plaza of the US Navy Memorial with a fresh baguette in hand, in lieu of a traditional baton.

We’ll divide up racers into teams of six people. Each team will be led by a PAUL employee. Each racer will do one lap around the circle of the US Navy Memorial and then hand off his/her baguette (baton) to the next teammate.   All members of the winning team will get a $25 gift card to PAUL. We’ll be encouraging relay racers to sign up in advance on our FB page: Facebook.com/Paul1889.usa

When: Thursday, July 14, 2001 at 11:30am

Where:

PAUL Bakery and Café in Penn Qtr. (at the US Navy Memorial)

801 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC

Tel: 202-524-4500/01

Additional Info:

About Bastille Day

Bastille Day, the French national holiday, commemorates the storming of the Bastille, which took place on 14 July 1789 and marked the beginning of the French Revolution. The Bastille was a prison and a symbol of the absolute and arbitrary power of Louis the 16th’s Ancient Regime. By capturing this symbol, the people signaled that the king’s power was no longer absolute: power should be based on the Nation and be limited by a separation of powers.

About PAUL

www.Paul-USA.com

Twitter: @Paul_USA

Facebook: www.facebook.com/paul1889.usa

  • PAUL was founded in 1889 by the Holder family and has continued baking bread in the traditional manner for over 120 years
  • We are artisanal bakers, passionate about the craft of baking
  • PAUL is France’s leading bakery
  • PAUL is now present in over 22 countries
  • There are nearly 500 PAUL bakery-cafés worldwide.
  • The store on DC’s Pennsylvania Ave. is considered PAUL’s US Flagship bakery-café

·         Store hours are: Mon-Fri: 7am to 8pm; Sat-Sun: 8am to 7pm.

Photo by DocteurCosmos/Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license