50 Bastille Day Food Ideas: Create your Own French Menu

Bastille Day continues by celebrating the Olympics! To celebrate French National Day (la Fête Nationale) on July 14th, make your own French menu inspired by 50 delicious recipes from my Paris kitchen.

From the classic Blanquette de Veau to fluffy chocolate mousse, we'll unveil surprising truths about what the French really eat. Get ready to discover hidden gems and historical dishes to make your Bastille Day unforgettable!

How do the French Celebrate Bastille Day?

Known in France as la Fête Nationale, the French celebrate Bastille Day on 14th July. In France, however, we never refer to it as Bastille Day - rather more simply as 'le quatorze juillet'. For us, it's a bit of a mouthful in French to talk about the storming of the Bastille (la prise de la Bastille), pronounced 'Bas-tee' in French.
For more, there's a great source at History.com on the story of the Bastille.

Ever since 1880, it has been an official holiday with two major events to celebrate the anniversary of the historic storming of the Bastille prison in 1789 which sparked the French Revolution.

Today in Paris, the day starts with an impressive military parade (le défilé) down the Champs-Elysées, from the Arc de Triomphe to the Place de la Concorde, to salute le Président and ends in an evening concert with extravagant fireworks at the Eiffel Tower. Fireworks are the tradition all around France.

Bastille Day Food Traditions

You'll be surprised, but for such an event as Fête Nationale, the French don't have a typical Bastille Day traditional menu. Bastille Day is just enjoyed with just good French food! So here's a breakdown of inspiring meals throughout the day to enjoy some of our best classic dishes.

While many of you display lots of red, white and blue to reflect a more patriotic version of the Tricolour flag (known in French as 'le drapeau Tricolor'), the French don't usually go in for the colour theme for Bastille Day.
So if you feel there's not enough of it going on here, feel free to decorate breakfasts with blueberries and strawberries plus for sweets with cream or white chocolate mousse.

Start Bastille Day with a French Breakfast

Like many French families, it's a sweet start to the morning - although these recipes are lower in sugar. Many of these typical breakfast recipes are considered desserts in their own right so are easily interchangeable.

• French pancakes (crêpes). Enjoy these extra thin with a squeeze of lemon and sugar, apricot jam or rhubarb compote and plenty of seasonal summer fruits like strawberries (fraises) and blueberries (myrtilles).
• Perhaps the ultimate French Bastille breakfast is a fluffy brioche à tête. Although the claims are very unlikely true, it still evokes Marie-Antoinette's famed saying, "Let them eat brioche" to the starving revolutionaries at the gates of Versailles.
• Any leftovers are great for making pain perdu (French toast), which we enjoy for dessert rather than breakfast. This recipe comes from our local boulangerie in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, near Paris!
• If you prefer savoury food for breakfast, then opt for some good French bread and cheese. Serve with fig jam or spiced plum jam, fresh fruit or apple compote.
• Although also served for dessert, we love to serve the Clafoutis (baked custard dish) chilled for le petit déjeuner. Take your pick from whatever fresh summer fruit you have in season: a Cherry Clafoutis, Strawberry Clafoutis, or make a red, white and blue version with different berries in this blueberry and lemon clafoutis.

Bastille Day Lunch Menu

For your Bastille Day lunch menu, stick to the summery theme with these light lunches.

• For a summer salad, the Classic Niçoise Salad is always a good idea. This recipe is the authentic from Nice without cooked vegetables, so it's even quicker to make.
• A warm goat cheese salad (salade de chèvre chaud) is delicious with or without the bacon - but ensure you use my recipe tips to give it that extra taste of France.
• Savoury buckwheat crêpes (Galettes des Sarrasin), typical of Brittany and Normandy is a light lunch crowd pleaser. Make it vegan or dairy free with olive oil instead of butter - otherwise it's vegetarian and gluten free made with pure buckwheat flour. Alternatively, serve the classic French galette complète with ham, cheese and an egg.
  No galette comes without a simple green salad.
• For something different, make my Corsican mother-in-law's best mint omelette. You'll be surprised how something so simple is so good! Great for brunch too.

French Snack Ideas for 'Le Goûter'

The French official afternoon 'snack' of the day is known as 'le goûter' around 4pm. OK, the French don't snack between meals but this is the official excuse to have a biscuit or cookie or two with tea or coffee or other beverage.
More on this in my daughter's article, How to Eat Like the French.

• Create your own Bastille Day Marianne with these Biscoff cookies. The Marianne is the national personification of the French republic: a symbol of liberty since the French revolution.
• If you love French butter cookies, then you need to make Palets Bretons, the thick salted butter biscuits from Brittany. Quick and easy to make with just 2 egg yolks. Top with pistachio pastry cream and plop on a strawberry.
• Enjoy the most French hot chocolate, just like the ones you queue up for in Paris!

• Whip up these easy Financiers, the buttery almond cakes that were re-invented around Paris' stock exchange to resemble gold bars.
• With the leftover egg yolks, take a taste trip to Bordeaux with my best Canelé recipe (Cannelés de Bordeaux) without beeswax. Dark, crispy and caramelised on the outside, these cakes have a soft yet firm vanilla and rum custard inside.
• For the ultimate Parisian treat, make some salted caramel macarons. An extract from my 2nd book, you'll find over 50 recipes from both my books plus all the tips.

Bastille Day Party Food Apéritif Ideas

No Bastille Day is complete without an 'apéro', the traditional apéritif (drinks and nibbles) before a meal. It's always the ice-breaker and warm-up for lively conversation amongst family and friends.

• For cocktails, serve a French Kir Royal, traditionally served with Champagne or Crémant sparkling wine with blackcurrant liqueur (crème de cassis) or a still kir with white wine.
• The classic French 75 cocktail packs a shot! Discover the real classic where it was invented in Paris's Harry's Bar.
• Serve with Candied Cherry Tomatoes - dipped in salted toffee and rolled in delicious seeds, make the perfect fun Bastille party centre-piece.
• For garlic lovers, dip crudités, raw cauliflower florets and carrots, into poichichade, the Provençal chickpea answer to hummus or broccoli hummus - made in only 15 minutes and so healthy!

• Otherwise, eat radishes like the French for a typical summer apéritif: with salted butter and bread. The butter helps cut through the natural radish spice.

Appetizers (French Entrées)

Kick off your Bastille Dinner menu with some typically French classic soups.
If soup isn't your thing, see many more ideas from the collection of French starters/appetizers.

• Crème Dubarry - this rich, creamy French cauliflower cream soup was created for Madame du Barry, King Louis XV's last and favourite mistress, who adored cauliflower.
• Another classic French starter or appetizer, le potage Saint Germain is the best pea soup ever! Named after the Count Saint-Germain who loved peas, historically, it was made with fresh peas. You could cheat and make with frozen or split peas from the pantry.

10 Bastille Day French Dinner Dishes

Some classic French dishes for your main Bastille menu. While stews are always popular, some are more suited for our Southern Hemisphere friends enjoying winter.

Instead, in France, with rising July summer temperatures, we're likely to grab a roasted chicken (poulet rôti) with the potatoes cooked in their falling juices from the local boucherie or market the day before. Why the day before? Because we're watching the military parade all morning!

• With roast chicken or grilled BBQ meats, serve with a potato gratin dauphinois, a roasted vegetable tian and don't forget the most classic Béarnaise sauce. For other stews, serve with sautéed green beans with garlic.
• If you prefer fish, then there's a 'lotte' of choice! This is the perfect summer stew, la Lotte à L'Américaine made of monkfish but just as good with any firm fish like Mahi-Mahi. Also served with rice.
• For something lighter for summer, enjoy roasted stuffed sardines. It's a taste of the Riviera and delicious with some chilled rosé. As is this easy mustard-topped Pan-Fried Mackerel.
• The Blanquette de Veau (French veal stew) is the most popular French classic dish reputed to be THE French favourite of family dishes. This is my best recipe, shared for many years here on le blog. Serve with rice.
• As le Coq Gaulois (Gallic Rooster) is one of the national symbols in France (it decorated the French flag during the Revolution), enjoy this classic Coq au Vin.
• Boeuf Bourguignon - another firm French favourite for your dinner menu. Don't forget to marinade the beef the day before and enjoy with a good crusty baguette.

12 French Desserts - A Sweet End to your Bastille Menu

No Bastille Day celebration at home is complete without dessert! Take a pick from our favourites to create your own Bastille dessert menu.
Don't forget to add some salted caramel sauce and nougatine to a slightly warmed creamy French rice pudding (riz au lait) or a French apple tart. Otherwise the rest are chilled for your perfect summer sweet.

• Bourdaloue Almond Pear Tart, named after the Parisian street where it was invented in the 1900s. A sweet pâte sucrée tart base with almonds filled with Williams pears and almond cream, glazed and topped with slivered almonds and macarons.
• There's nothing to beat the best ever French tarte au citron. This lemon tart is made extra special with a hint of lime, inspired from our favourites around Paris.
• Authentic French chocolate mousse recipe without cream. Also reduced in sugar to appreciate the quality of the dark chocolate.
• Chocolate crêpes served the French way with the ultimate chocolate sauce.
• After the clafoutis ideas for breakfast, try this raspberry clafoutis for dessert. Serve either at room temperature or chilled.
• Poire Belle-Hélène - the historic classic pear, vanilla ice cream and chocolate dessert.
• Love ice cream cakes? Then make this Vacherin glacé. This French iced celebration cake is easy to prepare in advance.
• Berry Crème Brûlée - a quick and light French summer recipe - made with fresh berries, topped with an elderflower sabayon and toasted under the grill. An elegant dessert that can be whipped up in 30 minutes.
• Red, White and Blue Macaron Trifle - not very French but my British sherry trifle given a French twist with macarons (gluten free). Top with patriotic tricolour red and blue berries. Perhaps I should rename this a Bastille Rifle, not trifle (pun groan).
• Last, not least, is the best ever French Crème Caramel. Made extra light and silky without cream, discover the taste of this popular dessert found in many Parisian brasseries. Either serve directly in their ramekins or upturn on a serving plate to show off the shiny caramel.