Bastille Day: the day I learned not to mess with the French military

July 14 is Bastille Day in France.  It begins with the largest and oldest regular military parade in Europe along the Champs-Elysées.  The main festivities are held in the Place de la Concorde but that area is invite-only so we walked up the Champs-Elysées.  

It began in the predictable fashion with well dressed marching groups (the correct term is probably something something regiment or brigade or something but not having joined the Canadian army when Graham's friend Dan Mazurek tried to recruit me at an afternoon bbq in summer 2006, I never learned the correct terminology).  

So, marching bands, goose steps, yep, that seems expected for a national holiday, however, at the point where all other parades I have watched usually turn from the official types to the standard procession of slightly burnt middle-aged men driving their vintage cars and glum looking local children's sporting teams along with the random floats celebrating various religious cults, the Bastille day parade differs.  None of that for them, instead the French military gets out the big guns, literally.  A huge cavalcade of increasingly enormous tanks, fuel trucks, rocket launchers at other terrifying vehicles that definitely convinced me never to declare war against France.  

As you can we weren't the only ones that came out to watch this.  

But we did however refrain as much as possible from the most annoying tourist practice ever of holding camera above head so as to obliterate the view of any person behind you under 6ft 6.  Grrr.  Those people make me so mad!!  If you are a friend of mine and you find yourself assuming this position take a moment to remember that travelling is about experiencing things with your own eyes and with the others around you.  NOT taking as many pictures as your 380000GB memory card will allow.  If you like pictures then stay at home and use the money to buy books of photos taken by professionals.  Life is for living not taking pictures of other people living! (rant over).

Here is the Arc de Triomphe dressed up with an enormous French flag for the occasion.

There were also two different flyovers which included all sorts of big and small fighter planes and then a crazy fleet of helicopters.  In the first flyover (which kicked off the parade) the tale streams of the planes were blue, red and white.  So cool.

After the parade they positioned all the military stuff in parks all over the city so that a little (and big) boys of Paris could have their wildest dreams come true and line up to sit in the tanks, helicopters and other crazy stuff.  

We went to the Hopital des Invalides which has beautiful park and an amazing 17th century building. 

Now for some more pics of insane military equipment.

These are the missiles (8 of them).  Very scary.

In the afternoon Moster Hanne (my aunt from Copenhagen) and I visited the Musée de l'Orangerie (which I've written about here) and Graham went over to an exhibition of Ralph Lauren's vintage cars.  He loved the cars and we loved the Monets, everyone was happy.


We found a lovely french meal at Chez Pierrot (see my review here) and ended the day at a huge free concert and fireworks show in the Champs de Mars in front of the Eiffel Tower.  It was great if a little weird since the fireworks show was choreographed to the theme of musicals through the years and ended with a grand finale to West side Story's "America". 

Such a great day!!

Some travel tips: 

Parade - Place de la Concorde is closed to the public so arrive at the Champs-Elysées around 9am for a good spot.  The best metro stations to use are the Franklin D Roosevelt and George V stations.  

Fireworks - No worries about getting there before 9:45pm (fireworks show starts at 11pm) unless you want to be close to the stage.  There was lots of room further back and the atmosphere was still great.