Bastille Day Parade

Wow.  What a day.  This is why we came to Paris in July--to be here for Bastille Day.  We started the day going to the Champs-Elysée to watch the military parade.  It is the oldest and largest military parade in Europe.  Kelly got us a front row spot where we could see well.

Kate Monson at the Parade

The troops were stationed all up and down the Champs-Elysée waiting for the parade to start.  We were about 1 1/2 métro stops down for the Arc de Triomphe so did not see all of them.  We missed the soldiers who were down near Place de la Concorde who came from all the nations that participated in WW I. 
The sailors were ones lined up in front of us.

Sailors

Some had on light blue and white striped shirts and sailor collars.  Some had regular jackets.  And some had red pom-poms on top of their hats.
Soon they started getting into formation.  When they were told to turn, some turned left and others right.  The crowd started laughing.  Kelly and Quin said they could tell from the symbols on the uniforms that it was a group of navy nurses in front of us--many women.  They weren't as disciplined as some of the other groups but they eventually figured out which direction to stand.

Navy Nurses

Then the men on horseback started riding by.

And the next thing we knew, the President came rolling by, standing in a jeep and inspecting the troops.


President François Hollande standing in the jeep

We loved these guys in front of us with the bayonets.

Soldiers with Bayonets

This guy had a lot of medals pinned to his chest.

We could see people on balconies and roofs across the street watching the parade.

The parade began with a flyover of jets.  I was lucky to get this picture.  They flew right over the trees we were standing under and there was just a small area straight above that was open to see the planes.

La Patrouille de France
9 Alphajets

Fighter Jets

This is just a sampling of the many types of planes that we saw.

 










Then the soldiers started marching.




Pilots

Tricolor ceintures

Look at the plumes on their hats

National Police

Les Sapeurs-Pompiers (Firefighters)

A female Sapeur-Pompier with an ax

I took lots of pictures of the firefighters for Andrew.  The firefighters are part of the military dating back to the time of Napoleon.

More axes on their shoulders

Each group of soldiers had their own support team with first aid, etc. 


Firefighter support team

Shiny Axes

Next came all the motorcycles.

And then all the army trucks, jeeps, tanks, rocket launchers, and more.

Jeeps



Kelly and Quin enjoying the le défilé (parade)



Drones

Uniforms with cool white capes

The trucks and tanks had the names of battles and the year on the side.

Flanders 1914

Moscow 1812

Artillerie Flag

Rocket Launcher

Paris 1944

Strasbourg 1944

After all the military vehicles came the helicopters.

 

As we headed out to walk home, we saw a fire ladder truck go by.  But we had lost our front row view.

 

Kate and I walked home together and walked by our boulangerie so Kate could get an éclair rose (called a "Mr. Pinkie"  according to Spencer).  The boulangerie was setting up tables on the sidewalk expecting big Bastille Day sales as people headed to the Eiffel Tower to picnic.

 

We came back to the apartment to rest before the next Bastille Day adventure.  Stay tuned for part two.