Bastille Day

The 14th of July was Bastille Day here in France.  It is the celebration of the beginning of the French Revolution. The people stormed the Bastille prison to tell the French Monarchy that they were tired of their abuse.  I think it would be a cool celebration to have everyone storm something every year but instead there is a parade and fireworks at the Eiffel Tower.  We were excited to go to the parade this year because it goes down the Champs-Elysees and Jeremy's office is right on the Champs-Elysees = prime viewing!  This is especially important to me since I am short.  However, since it was Sunday we had church instead and were lucky enough to hear the military jets soar over us during the meeting.  I guess we can see it next year.  Our friends Katherine and Andrew invited us to join them at the Eiffel Tower for fireworks.  Jeremy and I went back and forth and then decided to go at the last minute since it really is a once in a lifetime event.  So we (along with 60,000 other peeps) went to the Champs de Mars.  It was a challenge just getting to the park and finding our friends.  They had been there since 3:00 and we felt a little guilty getting there at 9:00.  They had a large blanket but it was taken over by some BYU students.  We could have been annoyed but then you realize that people in their teens are still very unaware of the world around them so it really is pointless.  There was a classical music concert that began around 9:30 and the fireworks started around 11:15.  They were really spectacular and worth our legs being asleep for three straight hours.  I wish I had a nice camera but I just used my iphone to take pics so you will have to imagine what they looked like in person.

Katherine and Andrew Current

The glowing lights are where the concert was and luckily they set up big screens so we could see.

The craziest part of the fireworks show was all of the American music they played...more than any French music by far.  They played music by Michael Jackson, Pearl Jam, Mamas and the Papas and much, much more.  At one point they played speech clips from JFK and Martin Luther King "I Have a Dream."  I mean, is that weird to anyone else on French National Day??  The ultimate where I began to totally crack up was when they played the song "Living in America"...What?  We are in the middle of Paris....

I took this pic from www.theatlantic.com by Charles Platiau and Gonzalo Fuentes so you could get a better idea of what it really looked like for the audience.

The craziest part of the evening was getting home.  The crowds just poured out into all of the streets.  It was funny to try to watch a car or Vespa get through tens of thousands of people.  We walked most of the way home (which is pretty far) and eventually caught a metro two stops from our house.  It was a great thing to do...once!