Bastille Day

(Katherine) Today was the big day, the day we had purposefully used to anchor our Paris travel plans - Bastille Day! We woke up with excitement, talking about heading down to the Champs-Élysées to possibly watch the parade or a myriad of other patriotic activities. Then we opened the blinds….it was POURING rain. Rain like a Midwest storm, comprised of thunder and lightening and buckets of water. It was the most rain we’ve seen on our entire trip - ironic, since it was the only day of the entire 9 months of travel which absolutely required a dry climate for the event (fireworks!)

However, by 4:30 it finally began to clear and the parade started up on TV. We took our time getting ready, enjoyed some sushi around the corner at Sushi Montmartre, and confirmed plans with Venetia to meet up with her and another couple who are hosts (have a listed apartment) on AirBnb. I didn’t realize that our meeting location was actually at the Eiffel Tower until we followed the direction to the park and I looked up to see the famous structure for the first time. It truly is an amazing site to behold! We found Venetia and the couple, Liz and Vincent, who were joined by some of their other friends. We were still at least 2 hours away from the fireworks show, but we decided to claim some real estate on a dry patch of ground and wait.

The Eiffel Tower had been lit up all evening and then right around 11:00 it went dark - time for the show to begin! We all stood up and watched the most amazing 30-minute fireworks spectacle I have ever seen. Music pumped through a PA system which included many French classics, an Indian Bollywood song, and many songs related to Africa and specifically South Africa. We assumed this was mainly due to the recent World Cup, but we later learned it was also a nod to the many immigrants here in Paris including those from the French islands in the Caribbean. The fireworks were perfectly timed to build with the music, and shot off just behind the Eiffel Tower which remained dark throughout most of the performance. Suddenly at the end, it lit up in thousands of blinky lights for a dramatic effect against the fireworks display. Truly stupendous!

Just as the performance came to a close, the rain moved back in and it started to drizzle. We all made our way through the chaos to find a metro station - we later learned that we were making our way through a crowd of over 1 million people who had turned out for the show! We said our goodbyes to the group and made plans to get together again soon. This truly would be a night to remember!