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Local Expert: Marael Johnson

Award-winning travel writer Marael Johnson has written for many prominent print and online publishers on areas as diverse as Outback Australia, Europe's Basque region, Louisiana's Cajun country, and remote South Pacific islands. She grew up in Los...

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Latest posts from our Los Angeles expert:

July 10, 2008
Local News

Quiche, Can-Can, Drag Queens, and Poodles

It's Bastille Day, and where better to spend it than--er, Santa Barbara? No joke. In celebration of the famous French holiday, Santa Barbara will host its 21st Annual French Festival (www.frenchfestival.com), which draws approximately 20,000 visitors and is billed as the largest French celebration in the entire Western United States. Held on Saturday and Sunday, 12-13 July, between the hours of 11 AM and 7 PM Oak park will turn into Francophile heaven complete with sidewalk-café dining on fancy fare, casual crepes, Cajun specialties, and scrumptious pastries that will slide down with beer, wine, and champagne. Continuous entertainment at this free event encompasses an interesting mix of cabaret tunes, cool jazz, can-can and Moroccan belly dancers, Cajun performers, and opera and classical music. Storytellers and puppet shows delight children, and everyone's mood is tuned up a notch by the mimes and jugglers that wander among the crowds. There will be tributes to French musical icons Edith Piaf, Maurice Chevalier, and Jacques Brel, as well as Sengalese drummers, French-Polynesian dancers, a depiction of Bastille Day 1789, and--of course--the Femmes Fatales Drag Review. Mais oui! Oh, and Sunday 5:30 PM is the not-to-be-missed Poodle Parade when costumed, decorated, or au natural participants strut their fluff.
Oak Park
W Alamar Ave & W Junipero St
(805) 564-PARIS
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