How formal is that? What about a stylish summer sports jacket, for instance?
I got this just a day too late to answer it in time for Bastille Day, the French national holiday, which was last Tuesday, but this is a dress code that will come up on a lot of French-language invitations, so bear this in mind for the next one. Tenue de ville means slightly more than just what you would wear in a city, especially since cities are no longer zones of mandatory formality, and a lot of people think their silver polyester basketball shorts work at cinema and restaurant alike. In France – and I presume your hosts are European, if they are celebrating Bastille Day in Ottawa – this code means business attire, i.e. suit and tie. The more important the event, the darker the suit should be. (Note that in recent group photos of the G8 leaders, taken even in Italian mid-July heat, everyone is in charcoal, black or navy.) Now summer in Ottawa can be steamy too. And Bastille Day is a festive occasion, not a sombre one, a day for fireworks and the pardoning of traffic offenders, so y
