Happy Bastille Day! “Lady Liberty” contest winner announced

A friendly game of pétanque. Photo by Ricardo Martins.

Happy Bastille Day, Cheapos!

Whether you’re in Paris or Peoria, we hope you’ll find the time today to hum a couple bars of “La Marseillaise,” drink a pastis, or at least think warmly of Catherine Deneuve. As for these New York-based Cheapos, we’re taking a tip from the French Tourism Office in New York and heading down to the Cercle Rouge in TriBeCa over lunch to check out the pétanque, “baby-foot” (foosball), live music, and (best of all) magic show!

A winner is announced

In a post last week, we offered a free Perigot “Teddy” bag to the first person to correctly answer this question:

Bartholdi was the artist, but who was the structural engineer of the Union Franco-Americaine “Statue of Liberty” project?

Well, it seems the question was too easy for our smarty-pants readers. The answer, as Holly guessed immediately, is Gustave Eiffel, of the “tower” fame.

Both the American National Parks Service and la Tour Eiffel, and book after book (including Liberty: The French-American Statue in Art and History, by the New York Public Library and the Comité Officiel Franco-Américain) credit Eiffel as the engineer. Maurice Koechlin was one of the engineers with Company Eiffel.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the contest! More fun giveaways will be coming your way soon.

In the meantime, think pastis…