Celebrate France and Bastille Day at DC's Hillwood Museum

July 10, 1:48 PMDC Art Travel ExaminerMarsha Dubrow

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Celebrate France's Bastille Day by learning 18th century games, dances, and other let-them-eat-cake frivolities at Washington's Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens this weekend. 

And oui, explore Hillwood's exceptional collection of fine French decorative arts, including Sèvres porcelain and gold boxes, with the chief curator. The magnifique 25-acre estate, right in DC, was a home of heiress and hostess par excellence Marjorie Merriweather Post, who built the Post Toasties cereal fortune into General Foods.

Frolic for French independence pre-Bastille Day chez Hillwood Museum

Along the way, she collected also Fabergé eggs and other Czarist treasures -- one of the best collections outside Russia (and Richmond at Virginia Museum of Fine Arts), American Indian crafts, snuffboxes, and husbands, including financier E.F. Hutton. 

But back to Bastille Day (July14) events July 11 and 12.  For a full schedule, click here.

-- Stroll through Hillwood's exquisite gardens and learn about the artful French Parterre style garden.

-- Learn a country dance and games like ninepins and Game of Graces enjoyed at royal courts; how to bow; how to flirt by using a fan; make a beauty patch or mouche; and other Versailles-esque pleasures. 

-- Hear about Mme. Post's fascination with Marie Antoinette and see her gowns, which Post wore to charity balls in the 1920s in New York City and Palm Beach. Hillwood's curator of costumes and textiles guides the way.

Reservations are recommended: reservations@hillwoodmuseum.org or call 202-686-5807.

Now that we've celebrated America's independence, let's honor France's independence. Vive la France.

For more info: Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens, 4155 Linnean Avenue, N.W. (off Connecticut Avenue, N.W.), Washington, D.C., 202-686-5807. Visitor information.