Bastille Day!

Happy July 14th!!  Which to the French is called "La Fete Nationale"!  It is basically their independence day, and they really know how to celebrate!  But before I describe that, I want to quickly talk about my day of shopping on Saturday.  Because of my lack of familiarity with the city, I made a plan of all of the stores that I wanted to visit before I left my apartment.  I was able to buy every thing on my list, and then some!  As far as gifts for friends and family, if you are reading this PLEASE let me know what you want from Paris because they literally have a Parisian souvenir of everything.  I shopped at a bunch of little boutiques, as well as the largest department stores in Pars, Printemps and Galleries Lafayette.  Each one literally takes up three blocks with three huge buildings split into men's women's, and beauty and housewares. 

But as for how the French celebrate Bastille Day, they begin their day with a military parade which lasts... 3 hours.  The first hour consists of the troops walking through the Champs Elysees.  Literally every single Parisian conjugates on this street to give thanks and cheer on their troops.  But, for someone like me who only went to the parade 1 hour before it started, I did not have the best view.  But being there and feeling the electricity and spirit from the crowd made me so happy! Everyone was decked out in red, white, and blue, including myself.  I really got into the "quatorze juillet" spirit!

There were military plane fly-overs that left a trail of red, white, and blue stripes in the sky and after the parade of the troops, there was a parade of the military tanks, police motorcycles, and fire trucks.  Then after the parade, there were many different things to do in Paris, all for free!  Some of thine things you can do are taking a tour of the Opera Garnier, or seeing the Paris Ballet at the Bastille Opera House.  Make sure to take note of that, because I, along with my friends and many other tourists were confused about the location of the free ballet.  The Bastille Opera House is much bigger, so they hold the Bastille Day ballet there.  We waited in line for over an hour and still were on the second balcony.  But it did not matter because it was a fabulous performance, and even better it was completely free. 

Then for nighttime festivities, all of the fire stations in the city of Paris open up for the public, and host what are affectionately known as the Firemen's Balls.  These are basically big block parties inside the fire stations that include things such as a large container that gets filled with wine corks, and the more full it gets, the more clothing items the firemen take off.  I am actually not kidding at all, this is a real thing!  Also, I truly believe that it is a requirement of the country of France that as a government or public official, one must be extremely good looking.

And for the end of the whole day of celebrations was the biggest celebration of all... The fireworks at the Eiffel Tower!  And I got to watch them with an AMAZING view.  My host family invited me to their friends' roof because they had a great view of the Eiffel Tower.  But apparently it was not high enough.  My host family's friend, who apparently holds a very important medical position, led us down the street to the closed hospital where he let us in.  We then took the elevator to the top floor, and climbed up onto the roof.  Suddenly I was faced with an absolutely breathtaking view of Paris and the Eiffel Tower!  All I could do was sit back and watch the fireworks show in amazement.   Sometimes the sky would sparkle so much that the sparkling Eiffel Tower just blended right in.  What a great way to end the holiday!