In the Shadow of La Tour Eiffel

I literally spent 10 hours on the Champs de Mars yesterday, which the giant lawn in front of the Eiffel Tower. I now have pictures of the Eiffel Tower in the afternoon, evening, and night. The reason I gave up a perfectly good afternoon to roast in the sun was of course for the 14 juillet.

14 juillet is the French national independence day. In the US, we often call it Bastille Day, but no one here seems to. Most French take advantage of the day off to sleep in. American tourists wake up early to go to the parade on the Champs Élysées. My friends and I decided to forgo the sleep and go to the parade. Unfortunately, we didn’t wake up at 6, so I spent the parade craning my neck over the crowd to see the French troops going by. The most exciting part was the military fly over.

After wandering around in the vicinity of the Champs Élysées, my friends and I just gave up and went to the Champs de Mars. When we got there at 1:30, we had room for the four of us to spread out and lie down. By the 10:45 when the fireworks started, we barely had enough room to sit down. In between, we sat in the sun, talked, napped, and made friends with the people around us. I also learned two important lessons.

1. Bring your own sunscreen to France. I paid 13 euros, which is more than $15 for a normal sized bottle. That was the cheaper bottle.
2. If you want to eat out, go to a boulangerie/ patisserie. Restaurants are at least 12 euros. A sandwich at a boulangerie is less than 5 and you can get other delicious things like quiche for even less.

At 7, the concert for 14 juillet started. Many French people had told me, the Johnny Hallyday was going to perform. They were all surprised that I had never heard of him. He’s apparently one of the most famous French singers. My friends and I actually liked, Christophe Mae, the opening act better; however, my French friend informed us that his music was for little kids. Finally, the famous Johnny sang. He appeared in a black sparkly jacket and had little tufts of blond high lights in his hair. Like a lot of French singers, he had his fair share of songs were he purred, but he also sang a fair number of American songs. I found it very funny when my French friend and I were singing “Give Me That Old Time Rock and Roll,” but the only words that matched up were “rock and roll.” The French were not particularly enamored of “Born to be Wild,” but they all sang along to a song whose chorus was “que je t’aime, que je t’aime, que je t’aime.” It sounds much catchier when sung.

The highlight of the evening was the fireworks show. The fireworks were extra special for the 120th anniversary of the Eiffel Tower and they were truly spectacular. My pictures unfortunately do not do it justice, but hopefully they give a general idea. These fireworks were bigger and more colorful. The show told the history of Paris and the Eiffel Tower using the fireworks and images on the Eiffel Tower. For example, to show the revolutions in 1968, the tower was covered in flowers and then a hammer came down on them, but the flowers kept coming back. At the same time, there were fireworks in rainbow colors coming out of the sides of the tower.

The entry for last weekend is coming. I promise. Now, here is my gallery of the Eiffel Tower throughout the day. Try not to get Eiffel Tower fatigue. It really is beautiful.