La Grande Fête!
Friday night, we went to the closing celebration of DC Francophonie at La Grande Fête at the Embassy of France. DC Francophonie collaborated with Smithsonian at 8 to celebrate French culture and cuisine. Its annual party brought together 30 French-speaking countries to showcase their customs, food and drinks. We snapped the French Embassy's Ben Cormier, Nick Biggs-Chiropolos, Becca Saltzman and Lucy Hurlbut.
We enjoyed a variety of authentic cuisine, like Congo's smoked fish and spinach, Egypt's koshary, made of lentils, rice, macaroni and chickpeas, Switzerland's cheeses, Hungary's potica walnut rolls and Romania's cozomac, a traditional sweet bread. Here, Betsy, Sharon, Joey, Josh and John St. Louis.
Guests also got to try wines from Morocco, Georgia and Lebanon, Serbia's famous plum brandy, Belgium's traditional leffe beer, and Canada's blanche de chambly ales. Here, Environmental Film Festival's Elizabeth Berry, Fairfax County's David Edelman and his wife, Yahne Miorini.
DJ Princess Slaya kicked off a dance party with African, Caribbean and European music and guests danced the night away. Here, the Italian Embassy's Carlo Carugi, Paola Bolian, Cettina De Marco, Franco Basti, Silvia Dinale, Giovanni Sella and Clark Misul.
