Bastille Day 2025 at a bar in central Montpellier

How this evening came about

The community’s collaboration with this bar in Montpellier’s historic centre had started just four days earlier. On 10 July we held our first karaoke night there: the room was entirely ours that evening, about fifteen people came, we brought our own speaker, microphones and cables, and sang Russian, Ukrainian and French songs one after another. Everyone left feeling this had to happen again — the organiser said as much in the chat: “We’ll definitely do this evening again — and more than once!”

It didn’t take long. The next date picked was 14 July, a Monday, when the whole of France celebrates Bastille Day. The announcement went out to the chat on 11 July together with a video clip edited specially for it, and was pinned to the top so it wouldn’t get lost in the feed. The wording was straightforward: let’s get together “to celebrate the holiday of France — a country where the word FREEDOM isn’t just letters, but a way of life.”

What was prepared in advance

The preparation was serious. The room and the street in front of the bar were decorated in blue, white and red. A dedicated set of holiday cocktails was put together with the bar, and the shots in the colours of the French flag were poured for free. The programme was built around karaoke, contests and a chance to practise a bit of French — in the words of the announcement, “in a live, fun format.”

The key decision, though, wasn’t about decoration but about who was in the room: French friends and people we know from other countries were invited, the entire evening was hosted in French, and the karaoke ran as a mix. So it wasn’t a Russian-speaking party behind closed doors. It was a national holiday that the city’s Russian-speaking residents celebrated by inviting their neighbours to their own tables.

The schedule, and the one practical request

Doors were from 6 pm. The festive Happy Hour ran from 6 pm to 8 pm, and at 8 pm the programme of games and karaoke started. The announcement carried exactly one practical request: “booking a table is recommended” — in other words, it was better to sort out your seat in advance.

The day before, on 13 July, a very city-centre question appeared in the chat: “hi everyone! where is everybody parking?🙂” Things like that — parking, transport, what time people are actually turning up — always get sorted in the chat right before we head out. There were no lists, no forms and no registration for a bar night: you show up, join the shared table, and the evening takes it from there.

How it went

Honestly: no long morning recap survived this particular night in the chat. What is left is a handful of shots from that evening — you can see them on this page — and one message the organiser sent from the bar at 22:34: “Even the kids are singing here ;))”. Two things follow from it. First, the karaoke was in full swing by then. Second, it turned out to be a family evening: people brought their children, and the children took the microphone alongside the adults.

The organiser sums that night up briefly: it became a proper city-centre party where France’s national holiday was celebrated by everyone together — Russian speakers, French friends and acquaintances from other countries, at the same tables.

If you want to come to an evening like this

There is nothing to prepare: turn up at 6 pm for the Happy Hour or at 8 pm for the start of the programme, and book a table in advance if you can. Your level of French doesn’t matter — the evening was hosted in French, but a karaoke mix and a shared table work at any level of the language. For a lot of people, nights like this are exactly the living practice you’d normally pay a language school for.

Bars are only one part of what happens around us in Montpellier. Six weeks before this holiday the community went out for a barbecue and an overnight stay at a campsite, and in spring 2026 it gathered for a big barbecue in the park at Saint-Just. How all of it works, and how to get to the next meet-up, is on the page about the community: announcements land in the chat a few days ahead, and the place and time are decided there too, by everyone at once.