Holiday: Day 4 - Bastille Day

What immediately struck me about Bastille Day was that is wasn’t a copy of Australia Day but French, and maybe that’s just because I am an outsider looking in, or maybe it was because of the location we were in, but needless to say I was expecting people dressed in French colours, waving French flags, probably not getting on the beers, but I did expect to see a little more nationalism, or maybe French people just go about it a different way.

Unfortunately for me Bastille Day also meant that the bakery that I’d been wanting to go to was closed in the morning, so no fresh croissant and coffee for me, however I decided to take a different route home and luckily enough found a small bakery that was open, so I was able to get my pastry fix, unfortunately the look of that Nespresso type machine on the counter didn’t seem as appealing so I waved away the opportunity for a hot coffee and wandered back to get ready for the rest of the day.

Our overall strategy for the day revolved around a few things, get to the parade in the morning and get to the fireworks in the evening, anything in between would be a bonus and to be honest it probably gave us the opportunity to rest our weary feet.

So off we headed to the metro, this time we decided to take a different route to when we first came to town the day before, and what a surprise, it was like we had found an entirely new village, rather than the 5 shops scattered around the metro exit we now had a street full of different options, including a Starbucks, life could resume as normal. We decided to get a few more supplies for the day and continue on our way.

We arrived somewhat near the top of the Champs Élysées however as we approached the Arc de Triomphe we noticed the streets were blocked off, I had read about this so it clearly meant we were too late to get right up alongside the parade, which was okay as it was kind of enjoyable to walk amongst the sea of people making their way through the relatively vacant streets. We even managed to stop off and the kids got to have a close up look at some military vehicles. One thing I had wanted to see was the fly over however I missed the first planes which have the colours coming out the back, but fortunately saw everything else which was pretty cool, still not as impressive as the flyovers that the RAAF do at the Grand Prix in Melbourne but hey, that’s hardly a parade is it?

In the end we had walked all the way down the Champs Élysées and ended up crossing over the Seine where we dropped down beside the river and wandered along the path. Something we stumbled across that I didn’t know of (apparently others did) was that in Paris their drinking fountains also have sparkling water in them… I mean so they should right?

Anyhow we kept walking, I’m not sure we had anywhere to head but we took a turn and found an appealing bakery so decided that was the place to have lunch. I didn’t opt for a baguette as adventurous as the day before but it was toasted, and I do believe it had a different type of cheese on it, which was delicious nonetheless, I even managed to get an espresso which was made correctly, though i’m not sure if it was a double because it filled the cup, but hey lets not be fussy here, it was the best I had had so far :)

Post lunch we continued the wandering which took us passed the Louvre which was exciting for the kids, we even had a go along with everyone else of pretending to pinch the top of the pyramid, I think we had a fair effort in the end.

The “iconic” look of Parc des Princes

The last thing we planned to do before a pre fireworks siesta was to go to Parc des Princes which is the home stadium for Paris Saint Germain. Given that we had tickets to watch a match there on our pre Covid holiday it felt like the right thing to do. Considering PSG is the biggest club in France and the superstars they have playing for them I was a little underwhelmed at the stadium itself (from the outside). I find it interesting that in Australia we will knock a 40,000 seat stadium down and rebuild it and a place like Parc des Princes was built in 1972 and is a legally protected structure because of its iconic concrete structure (ugly). Anyhow we went and visited the PSG store which to be honest was poor, maybe the stadium store plays a second fiddle to the one on the Champs Élysées, but there wasn’t too much merchandise available and not comparable in size to the other stores we’ve been to (Chelsea, West Ham, Bayern Munich), so we didn’t buy anything, which is okay because they don’t need our financial assistance.

So after a quick dash back to the hotel and a nap for the kids we decided to round out Bastille Day watching the fireworks and light display that is featured around the Eiffel Tower.

Waiting for the sun to set

We had decided we didn’t want to get right up close and be amongst the crowd so though we’d watch from a little further out, which would give us freedom to turn up a little late as well as be able to get home easier. We caught the train to Concorde and then noticed that the bridge gave a good view (Post de la Concorde) but already there were thousands of people. We’d also arrived just before 10pm and the fireworks weren’t due to start till 11pm. Anyhow we loitered on the bridge for an hour and sure enough the bridge became completely packed to the point cars could barely get through, both sides of the river bank were completely lined with people and the entirety of Place de la Concorde with filled with people as well. But it was an exciting atmosphere, people cheered those riding bikes over the bridge similar to the Tour de France, people sang and people smoked, but eventually the light disappeared and the fireworks began. I’m not a huge fireworks person but it was pretty impressive how they integrate it with the tower. After about 15 minutes we decided to make a dash for the metro to avoid the rush, which luckily we did and we were home just around midnight, an exciting Bastille Day was complete.

Michael