Cape Vincent French Festival

Cape Vincent French Festival

Saturday before July 14

Cape Vincent, New York, is in the Thousand Islands, where Lake Ontario meets the St. Lawrence River, an area with a strong French heritage. At one time, there was so much feeling for Napoleon among the local residents that they built a cup-and-saucer style house (a local architectural style in which the ground floor is wider than the second floor) where they hoped he might decide to spend his exile. However, it was one of Napoleon's followers, Le Roy de Chaumont, who first settled here in the 1800s.
Launched in 1968, the festival immediately drew an astounding number of visitors, many of them French Canadians. It takes place, appropriately enough, on the Saturday before Bastille Day and features a wide variety of French foods as well as a pageant and a parade of decorated carts. A French mass is held at St. Vincent de Paul's Church, and the evening ends with a waterfront display of fireworks.

CONTACTS:
Cape Vincent Chamber of Commerce
P.O. Box 482
Cape Vincent, NY 13618
315-654-2481
www.capevincent.org

SOURCES:
GdUSFest-1984, p. 123

Celebration day: Jul 14