July 14th....Bastillle Day!!!

Bastille Day in Paris!!! Bastille Day is France’s national holiday, and there is a huge celebration at the Eiffel Tower at night, and other celebrations throughout the city during the day. We started the day by getting up late…oops. Our intentions were to make it to the Bastille Day parade, which started at 10:30. While we did make it, we didn’t make it earlier enough to get close to the street to actually see the parade, so all we got was hearing it and a little behind the scenes view of where the military boys gathered before and after marching. The crowds were absolutely insane…we walked back to the hotel (about 40 minutes) because they had closed down all of the metros surrounding the parade, which in all honesty was probably a good idea…large groups of people in very tight spaces usually does not work out very well. It was still pretty cool to be there though, regardless of really seeing the parade or not. The whole day was also our free day, so we just planned on going back to the hotel and catching up on homework. When we actually got back to the hotel…our plans fell through a little bit. Kylee and I both got on our computers, and actually checked on some things…then we decided to lay down for an hour…which turned into 4 hours. Oops again. We got absolutely nothing done, but the nap was nice!
When we woke up, it was time to go get some dinner and find a spot to watch the fireworks. It was only about 6 pm, and the fireworks didn’t start until 10pm, but the small amount of space in front of the Eiffel tower fills up quickly with all of the Parisian citizens and hundreds of tourists. We didn’t really do too much for dinner; we just grabbed sandwiches at a shop that was set up on the street. All my sandwich had on it was ham and butter (strange combo I know) but it was substance so it met our requirements. We got to the Eiffel tower with about 3 hours left to wait, but it was worth it because we got a super good spot with Beccah, Whitney, Malory and Jenna. They were more prepared than us and had brought a blanket to sit on, but for Kylee, Michelle, Megan, Susie, Amanda, Julia and I…we got asphalt. It was a little rough to sit on for 4 hours. They had music playing, a guy named Johnny Hallyday, and apparently he’s really big here. Everyone had t-shirts and was shouting his name. It was weird, he was pretty old (he looked about 55ish) and was wearing a black sequin shirt…Kylee compared him to Neil Diamond. Oh…and he sang in French, obviously, so we couldn’t understand anything he was saying. There were a lot of English speaking tourists there though, and plenty of Americans, so he and the others performers did play a couple of American songs. While we were sitting, I started talking with a married couple next to me. They were not American, they were actually from Vancouver, but at least we spoke the same language. We talked about their travels, where they had been and where they were going, my travels, their lives in college, how they met, how long they’d been married, just a lot of small talk stuff. We actually talked for a couple of hours, and I never even got their names. It’s ok though, the conversation was good and it’s always fun to meet different people. It was a lot of fun to talk with them, and it made the waiting time go by much faster. When the fireworks started, it was so incredible. The Eiffel tower lit up, and they did projected images onto it to make it look like it was moving and dancing, they projected pictures up of the different wars throughout French history and little cartoon battles. They shot lights up the tower to make it different colors and put different patterns all over it. It was amazing. And, of course, they had a huge firework show around it. Some fireworks were coming from the bottom, some from the 1st and 2nd levels, and some from the top. It was way better than any other firework show I’ve ever seen…except for the fact that all of the announcements were in French. Overall, it was one of the best things I’ve ever experienced in my entire life. It was just so incredible. While the fireworks were going, these very very drunk French boys were in front of us, and we started chatting with them a little (as much as possible with the language barrier). When we said we were American, they started jumping around declaring how much they loved America. It was really hilarious. When the fireworks ended, we tried to start leaving quickly to beat the masses, but with no such luck. It’s hard to beat the masses when they surround you from all sides, including in front of you. It was literally so smashed that we all held hands in a single file line and waddled through with a group of moving people. If your feet weren’t moving, you would be pushed down. There had to have been hundreds of thousands of people moving through the street. All of the roads were shut down and blocked off, and police were trying to direct the pedestrian traffic. It was crazy. We got separated about half way through, and Susie, Megan, Amanda and Julia ended up behind the rest of us. When we broke free of the crowd that was moving as one, we were just walking with smaller crowds back to our hotel. There was a man that appeared to be following our group, so we walked quite a bit faster to try to lose him in the crowds, which we did. It was a little scary though. Darrin had warned us earlier in the day to not speak English on our way back to the hotel that night, because there have been some problems before with Americans being attacked verbally and sometimes physically on Bastille Day. So we were pretty much silent on the way back. When we got to the hotel, Darrin and our hotel concierge were waiting outside and counting members of the group as we went inside. I lingered around the lobby for a few minutes waiting for Amanda and Julia, because we didn’t know if they were with Susie and Megan or if they were by themselves. All four of them came back in a group though, so everything worked out ok. It was such a crazy night, and a little bit scary to be surrounded by that many French people, some of which really hate you for being American, but at the same time, the experience was so worth it.