Bastille Day Parade

The Bastille day celebrations started in our quarter with a big African music concert in Place de la Bastille on Friday night. the same night, all across Paris, the fire stations held fireman's balls that anyone can go to. Apparently, the French are quite besotted with firemen, who are the nation's sex symbols.

The parade was huge with I think around 90,000 people there to watch (I'm not sure I have that figure right) It was the longest parade I've ever been to with squillions of marchers in every type of army uniform known to man followed by every single piece of camouflage equipment they could rustle up from their big tanks to what looked like camo street cleaners and rubbish collectors.

For some frenchies the parade is obviously an annual highlight. Jamie and Karina stood behind a 'parade spotter' who had a guidebook with all the different uniforms, furiously ticking them off as he spotted them march past.

The biggest hit were the firemen who were greeted with cheers and wolf whistles as they drove past in their trucks. I felt a bit sorry for all the meticulously dressed soldiers who marched along a silent crowd while the firemen got all the attention.

Literally every single person in France who has ever had any tenuous affiliation with the French armed forces at any point in history was in the parade along with all their planes, tanks and helicopters, so, as Jamie pointed out it would be a great day to invade one of France's other borders.