Le quatorze juillet

Well, the whole concept of attending the military parade on the Champs-Élysées held in honor of La Fête Nationale or what we Anglos call Bastille Day turned out to be quite an adventure.

Lest anyone get the idea that we have forsaken previous practice and no longer enter old stone churches, here is our briefest of detours on the way to the Chatelet Metro stop this morning.  We checked in on Notre Dame.

There has been a nearly constant line of persons waiting to enter since we arrived in town. This morning we were early enough to just walk right in. We spent not more than a few minutes and when we exited a line had formed to enter. This was our final bit of fortuitous timing for the next about two hours.

Mass tomorrow is at 8:30am.

We had no Metro tickets so we were faced with having to buy some in the machine that we expected to find in the Metro entrance. Problem: the first Metro entrance we tried had a machine but a machine that only accepted Navigo or a European credit card.

Back out on the street we were on our way to the next nearby Chatelet entrance. The good thing about having selected Chatelet as the Metro stop to begin our journey is that there are lots and lots of entrances. Our luck briefly seemed to change as we came upon a ticket machine at an above ground bus stop. I had never seen one of those before but the Metro and the bus use the same tickets so tickets purchased at the bus stop would be good on the underground.   Furthermore the bus stop machine took coins so we were soon prepared to tackle Chatelet again.

We ducked into the next entrance and came immediately to BOTH a machine and a window with a live person selling tickets.

*sigh*

We then had to wander through about a quarter mile of underground pedestrian tunnels before at last arriving at the platform for the 1 La Defense. The platform was jammed. Lots of people had the same plan as we, take the 1 to the parade. We took the precaution of standing directly adjacent to the gates that they have on the 1 line indicating where the doors to the cars are going to be.

The train arrived, jammed. Virtually no one got off. We got on and as the time for the doors to close approached we were treated to the Japanese subway phenomenon. Someone who really wanted to be on but who was still outside the doors took the initiative to compact the crowd enough to make room for himself and his companion. That means he pushed. He pushed hard. The crowd compacted.

We rode that way down to Palais Royale where a few got off and a few got on and the train lady began making an announcement, unfortunately for me, in French. Have I mentioned that my French is deficient?

I sensed trouble when the train did not stop at Tuileries. We did stop at Concorde but no one got off. I suspect it had to do with the announcement. There is a transfer to the 8 or the 12 that can be made at Concorde. I think only people making that transfer would have had reason to get off. I knew that the President of France and his official guests would be reviewing the parade from a review stand at Concorde so it seemed unlikely to me that there was going to be much in the way of a general public in that area.

The next stop is Clemenceau. We got off, lots of people got off. We all walked up the steps and discovered a police line. Exiting the station was not allowed. We walked back down the steps, back to the platform and took the only action available to us. We waited for the next train. And got pushed back on.

We rode along to the next stop, Franklin Roosevelt and tried again. Well, some good, some not so good. The crowd attempting to leave the platform was stopped on the stairs. Eventually we discerned some movement and decided to join the glacial movement. At the top of the stairs we discovered that the station has three exits. One was gated but we could see daylight at the other one nearest us. The crush of the crowd was an experience not to be missed, we got separated (but could still see each other) as the crowd carried us towards, and eventually up, the stairs. We reunited on the Champs behind probably 15 rows of people there to see the parade.

Well, we saw a cavalry band. Actually we saw a band (all brass instruments, no percussion) who were bobbing up and down creating the distinct impression that they were on horses. We actually saw no horses. Later on we did smell them. Interestingly enough, we were on the Champs-Élysées but at no moment did we come even remotely close to catching a glimpse of the Arc de Triomphe.

The crowd was pretty oppressive, we decided to leave. Not so fast citizens. There was a small amount of space behind the crowd in front of the businesses. However, at each end of the street there were choke points where it appeared egress was NOT being allowed.

We were at a parade that we were almost not allowed to enter and once having entered we were not going to be allowed to leave.

How much fun can an American have in Paris anyway?

Well, we could see through the windows of the business on the corner creating the choke point on the uphill side of the block that there was a side street and that people were coming and going. We wanted to leave so eventually we filtered our way into the back of the crowd in front of that business (and behind the parade crowd). As we got a bit into the group the pushing began in earnest. We moved about 20 meters absolutely belly to back side, baby step by baby step, inching towards the intersection. Again we were separated, again we could see each other.

When we reached the corner the Frenchman next to the FT proclaimed "Liberté!" We turned down the street, liberated at last to leave the parade celebrating Liberté (and also, of course égalité and fraternité).

And almost immediately ran into the parade.

This group was coming up the side street to join the parade where we had just left it. The FT inquired, "How will they ever get through?" "Easy," says I, "they have bayonets."

Then the oddest set of events began to occur.  We had been completely unable to see any of the parade while we were on the parade route but as soon as we got off the route we began to see all sorts of elements of the parade.  We were on a side street, I think rue Francois 1er when the big flyover part of the parade occurred.

We got  to near Pont Alexander and came upon this example of French tree trimming, an effect we find charming.  The monument there is to the Armenian victims of the genocide perpetrated upon them by the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1923.

Out on the Pont Alexander we renewed our acquaintance with at least one of the big landmarks, the only we were able to actually spot through today's crowd.

But the parade was just not ready to leave us alone.  Here we were having a little sit down and coffee at a brasserie on Boulevard Saint Germain across from the ministère de la Défense when the motorized units began driving by.

We ended up walking all the way back.  It was nice enough, we are both feeling better, it ended up being a nice walk.  We stopped at Eglise Saint Germain des Pres, one of the oldest churches in the city.  It was the center of an immensely powerful Benedictine abbey built outside the walls of the city at the time when the city was walled.

The fireworks display is at 11pm, we probably are not going to attend. We would have to plunge back into that whole Metro experience that we went through already once today and then after the display was over we would have to get back here at something around midnight. Instead we will watch on TV. I have discovered while doing the basic research on the fireworks that they will be streamed on line at at least a couple of sites. 11pm Central European Time is 4pm Central Daylight Time and 5pm Eastern Daylight.  The fireworks are actually fired from the Trocadero and for the finale they also light the tower. It seems to me like it should be a good show.