THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 14, 1995 TAG: 9507140423
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY FRANCIE LATOUR, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines
We know there was blood.
We can almost hear the sound of two-wheeled wagons carting people to the guillotine, that uniquely French invention used to behead an elite of thousands.
We even vaguely remember something about a queen saying ``Let them eat cake.''
But few know how a decade of world-shaking revolt called the French Revolution reached all the way to Norfolk's port and to one of its most prominent citizens - Moses Myers.
All across France today, celebrations are under way to honor the uprising of shopkeepers and merchants who stormed the Bastille fortress on July 14, 1789. From that prison revolt, a massive swell of unrest brought down centuries of absolute rule by kings and their noble attendants.
But across the Atlantic, festivities in Norfolk began Thursday, as the Moses Myers House honored both the historical event and Myers himself with a ball and historical re-enactments.
About 50 guests toasted the events. It is the second year the historical house has commemorated Myers' connection to France.
One of Norfolk's wealthiest merchants, Myers was following the events of the day closely - he traded lumber with France and would later serve as Norfolk's French consul.
In that role, Myers became an arbitrator between France and England, whose hostilities had great implications for trade with America's young cities. This was especially true in Norfolk, then the sixth largest port on the East Coast.
``We don't have a changing collection like galleries do,'' said Patrick Brennan, who directs the Myers House. ``So we try to take a look at the collection in different ways. Everyone who sees or lives through an event experiences it in a different way, and that's what we're trying to capture.''
Thursday's event offered a history lesson disguised as a ball. And in the tradition of the French, ``We're having you drink the wine before we try to teach you anything,'' Brennan told the participants.
The lesson began with Madame Louise Seymour, a French emigre who narrowly escaped death after her husband was captured by French authorities during the popular uprisings.
Legend has it that Seymour was rescued by one of Myers' captains, who stowed her away on a trade vessel and transported her to Norfolk.
The Myers House audience also met Monsieur and Madame Ducroix, who danced to Bach's Minuet in G.
It could've been a typical scene from King Louis XVI's own ballroom: she in powder-white empire dress, stiff gloves and pearls; he in gray swallow-tailed coat, breeches and shirt of tumbling ruffles.
But it was history with a slightly modern twist - Monsieur Ducroix sported five earrings in one ear. And a ponytail.
The menu, ironically, was fit for a king: caramelized onions on puff pastries, walnuts over Rocquefort cheese; brie and brandied apricots; goose-liver pate spread over apple slices.
It was a Parisian oasis in the desert of Hampton Roads for William Chadim, a French expatriate living in the Greenbrier section of Chesapeake.
``We take the food a little more seriously than Americans for the Fourth of July,'' Chadim said. ``We don't go for the hot dogs and hamburgers on a grill.''
One couple who attended had a less obvious French connection.
Claude and Leelee Turner are not from France. They don't speak French. And don't ask them anything about the reign of terror or the third estate.
But they were intimately familiar with the urge to rebel: On July 14, 1958, Claude and Leelee fled the pressures of their families and eloped.
White wine and pastries in hand, the couple celebrated their 37th anniversary at the Myers House.
``My mother was really, well, running things,'' Leelee explained, ``so we just took things into our own hands and eloped.''
The idea of storming a prison made pretty good sense to Claude Turner then: He may not have unleashed revolutionary chaos on a worldwide scale, but he did managed to dethrone his own private symbol of tyranny - his mother-in-law.
``We stormed the walls and made ourselves free,'' he said. ILLUSTRATION: Color staff photo by Mark Mitchell
Kim Tougaf plays the flute in period costume during the Bastille Day
celebration Thursday at the Myers House in Norfolk.
by CNB