We were lucky enough to be in Paris during the 2009 Bastille Day celebration. For who that is not familiar with Bastille Day (or La Fête Nationale as French people call it), it is the French national day, celebrated in 14th of July every year. This event marks the anniversary of the storming of the fortress-prison Bastille, which was a symbol of royal tyranny, located right in the centre of Paris. The fall of Bastille is an important turning point of the French revolution, and thus became an important icon of the French Republic.
We were in Paris
Every year, Bastille Day in Paris is celebrated extravagantly. The morning starts with the huge and very popular Bastille Day Military Parade, involving many many troops of cadets, infantry, cavalry, navy, tanks, artillery, fire trucks, acrobatic air units, and also sometimes guest foreign army, which was from India this year. In fact, this is the biggest and oldest regular military parade in the world! The parade takes place along the Paris most prestigious and world famous avenue Champs-Élysées. The 2 km route starts from the Arc de Triomphe and ends in the Place de la Concorde (that’s the plaza with the Luxor Obelisk by Pharaoh Ramses II), where the President of France and other VIPs stand.
So… We knew that it was going to be very crowded that morning, and we heard many people typically arrived many hours in advance to get the best view. However we didn’t think it was going to be this bad. We arrived an hour earlier which apparently was not early enough. Wherever we went along the parade route, people were there already making thick walls of human. I mean really thick, several meters! Being 187 cm tall, Ryan has no problem seeing the main road from above or between people’s heads. As for me, which is only 157 cm, I could only saw people’s back!
The wall of crowd waiting the parade to start
Apparently, I was not the only one that felt like needing a better view. Some people, following Zacchaeus example, were climbing on trees.
Zacchaeus strategy
There were not enough climbable trees for everybody, so some people decided to climb on gates. Besides, the trees were too leafy, it covered your view. The gate became quite popular. That’s OK, the gate was tall and wide, could fit many people there.
Some climbed the gate
They were cozy up there, but the first group of men in uniform they saw were not the troops participating in the parade. Instead of that they were security guards. The guards didn’t like it and told them to go down. Some insisted to stay up, “don’t worry it’s safe up hereâ€. The guards didn’t like the answer. It took a while pushing and pulling, fun for us to watch, and finally everybody was on land on their feet.
The security guards didn’t like it
I let Ryan watched the parade and tried to make myself busy. I spend most of the time playing with a little two years old girl that was also too short to see the parade. She gave me (or rather, fed me) her peanut puff snack. She loved doing it, and my hungry self loved it as well.
Not sure it was the brand
I was able to enjoy bits of pieces of the parade from our camera.
Marching troop
The cavalry with their handsome horses were fun to watch. I was lucky that they entered the parade from a side road close by, where I was able to actually see them myself (the human wall was only 1 meter thick here).
The cavalry entering the main road
There were many different kind of military vehicles. Armoured cars, trucks, and tanks from the light to the heavy ones.
Tanks
Artillery
There were also fire trucks, because apparently Paris Fire Brigade is a French army unit.
Fire trucks
My favourite part was the air show. For this one, I got quite a clear view. There were many jets from the French Acrobatic Patrol, which is the precision aerobatic demonstration team of the French Air Force (one of the oldest and best in the world!). They were flying in small groups, doing formations and acrobatics in the air. That show was fantastic. The best one was the last group of jets, with the blue, white, and red trailing smokes, leaving the blue-white-red streaks on the clear sky, the color of the French national flag. Breathtaking!
Air show
In the end of the parade, we saw parachuters raining down the sky, and there were many helicopters as well decorating the sky.
Helicopters
As we walked away after the parade was over, we encountered the military vehicles and the personnel from the parade. People were taking photograph with them. Ryan thought taking picture with them was too cute for him, instead he sent me there.
After the parade
Whew, what a morning! So, if you happen to be in Paris around the Bastille Day, make sure you don’t miss it! After the parade, they still have an open concert in Champ de Mars (that’s the field adjacent to Eiffel Tower), and a spectacular firework show right from the Eiffel Tower. So you can’t miss Bastille Day in Paris. Or rather, arrange your visit so you can be there on the Bastille Day!
The spectacular Bastille Day fireworks, you definitely can’t miss this!
When: 14 July 2009
Where: Paris
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