Tututututuuuuuuuuu ! Bastille day ! Ooh yeah ! As said earlier in the blog, we had been to the french embassy to get our invitations. So we were expecting a nice party there. What a disappointment... Dad wanted to make contact to see whether the embassy had kept some register about the former expats in Phnom Penh. Well we didn't even get a chance to do that. 

First of all, we had to queue for one hour, there were so many people invited. On that occasion we learnt that there were around 3000 French people registered at the French embassy... So basically, there should be around 5000 French people in Cambodia. Subtract those who don't give a s***, add the VIP who are not French but still welcome and you can have an idea about the queue out there...

It was clearly written that a correct "tenue de ville" soulé be demanded and, as experienced expats, we know what this means... So I bought a dress especially for that occasion. Was I wrong. Oh my. I couldn't believe how people were dressed. Well, foreigners were definitely beautifully dressed with cocktail dresses and jewelry, in honor of "la grandeur de la France" i guess. But you should hqve seen the French... Apart from some courageous ones, most were dressed like backpackers and I was ashamed. So was dad. We had been used to other kinds of festivities in foreign French embassies...

The food was more than mediocre. The main sponsor was the only french "charcutier" of PNH so everything was paté, saucisson à l'ail and other crap.  The main attraction was... A giant screen screen wi the military défilé on the Champs-elysees... Or a ridiculous band singing french covers with a cambodian accent. Miserable. Appalling. We stayed for 15 minutes.

We went to Paddy Rice, again. And we drank. And I was drunk. And we got back to the hotel... To sleep.

Other than that, you'll see soon that we went to visit the royal palace and the silver pagoda that day, under the pouring rain :-) but it was cool ! And beautiful !

Talk soon guys !

Nadege