La Fete National

Known to us non-French people as Bastille Day.  Don't call it that to the French, though.  They don't like it.

There are a number of activities around Paris to celebrate the day, but one of the biggest is the parade down the Champs Elysees.  Bryan and I headed out early that morning to get spots up close so that we could all see.  They had barricades lined up along the street and we weren't allowed in quite yet.  We brought blankets to put down to sit on at the curb.  Yeah, right.  This is Paris.  Nothing is as you expect it to be.  There would be no sitting down for many hours.  When you went into the barricaded area, there were guys checking bags to make sure nobody had drinks, which is good.  Who would want to have drinks while standing for several hours in 85 degree weather?

 

 

Thankfully, Sandy, Andrea, and the kids showed up before it got too busy.  And by busy, I mean...

People were standing 8 or 9 deep and everyone pushed forward to see when the parade started.  We had to stand our ground to keep people from pushing ahead of us.

I had never been to a military parade before.  This was impressive.  There were over 5000 infantry, 200 mounted units, airplanes, helicopters, armored vehicles, motorcycles...  With all of the jokes that are out there about the French military, I was surprised by this.  As a coworker of mine said, "Yes.  That is the one day we remember we have a military, and we promptly forget it the next day."  Very true.

The infantry units assembled along the street in front of the crowds, so we were able to watch them get lined up and ready.

 

It was a little hilarious to see the troops having snacks that consisted of juice boxes and candy bars.  When they were done, they had some left over and threw some of the juice boxes to us.  Nick got one.

Bryan and I were going to rochambeau for it, but decided it was just a juice box and definitely wasn't worth it.

At the start of the parade, President Sarkozy drove by.  We had no warning, so I'm very surprised that I was able to get this picture.

The parade officially started with a fly over.  This consisted of 53 different airplanes in various waves.

The mounted units came next, however, most of the mounted units entered the parade at a point past where we were standing.

The troops had such a wide variety of uniforms.  The group in front of us had a very traditional uniform.  Then, there were the 2 guys with leather aprons carrying axes.  I have no idea who these guys were, but a lot of the soldiers in front of us were getting their pictures taken with these guys.

French Butcher's Brigade?  Quite possibly.  Then you had these guys.

It was difficult getting a good picture of them because they were never close to us.  The huge white berets weren't even the craziest part of their outfits.  Their pants ended just below the knee and they had on long, white socks and black boots.  Their shirts... were hoodies.  Seriously.  Click on the picture to see a larger version of it.

You had the guys in camo with the bright yellow shoulder sash.

The dress whites

And the guys that you really didn't want to mess with

Then came the fire brigade.

Finally, the part I was waiting for.  The armored vehicles.  I'm not sure how many there were.  Maybe 100?  Maybe more? 

They finished the parade with a flyover of over 40 helicopters in various waves.  Again, it was impressive.

It was a hot morning of standing around, but it was worth it. Like I said, it was impressive.

Later that day, we heard a lot of noise on the street outside of our apartment.  We looked out and a lot of the vehicles (including tanks) were driving up and down our street honking horns and waving at everyone.  We probably had 30 or 40 go by that we saw.