Bastille Day was marked by a celebration in the French embassy in Dublin yesterday. As the crowds lined Paris's Champs-Elysées for the annual military parade, about 150 members of the Irish Francophile and French community made their way to the ambassador's residence on Ailesbury Road.
French food and wine were served in the garden, in military tents decorated in the national colours.
In his Bastille Day address, Ambassador Frédéric Grasset jokingly brushed aside France's World Cup defeat. Instead, he referred back to the storming of the Bastille in 1789, and urged citizens to "bring down other fortresses, not those made of stone, but the ones we've built around ourselves".
Last night the Bastille Day celebrations continued at the Smithfield Plaza with a special performance from the French Compagnie Transe Express.
The aerial performance of Mobile Homme, involving musicians and trapeze artists performing from giant suspended structures modelled on a children's hanging mobile, was part of the "Summer in Dublin" initiative.
The festivities continue at the plaza today and tomorrow with a continental market, featuring French food stalls, face painters, street performers and French music.
Historical re-enactments of Bastille Day court cases and fencing duels will take place in Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane, from 2pm to 4pm tomorrow.