This July 4th we were in France, which was a little odd but made much better by some new friends, the Hageman family. Jen and Doug and their three boys are here for a few years, also as expats. Jeremy and I headed over in the afternoon, since Jeremy had to work half a day...do you know that the French don't take off the Fourth of July? :) Jen made great American food. They have access to the Commissary which meant we had real hot dogs, beans, Doritos, Jello, Root Beer, etc. Her sons are in the Boy Scouts and were invited to participate in the ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe for the fourth. You can tell that Thomas (their middle son) was excited to get ready to go...their kids are a riot!
We got to the Arc early so we could watch the boys process from the Champs-Elysees. The French army was there and the army band. They even played The Star-Spangled Banner in honor of the day, and a few marches.
Veterans, important statesmen and boy scouts all walked down part of the Champs-Elysees and came up to the flame under the Arc. There was a ceremony, but it was a little hard to hear.
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| This was my favorite picture of the evening. It was surreal to have the French and American military together in France with the Eiffel Tower overlooking the whole thing. |
Matt (the oldest son) was the cute one on the end. What a great experience for them.
Jeremy gave Timmy a better view of what was going on!
Hello, I'm Audrey from Pardon My French; Thanks for your comment and welcome to France!
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