We returned to our hotel too late to blog about our first day in Paris yesterday, but I’ll catch up on that later.  Today is Bastille Day, a national holiday.  Museums and other buildings are closed or have limited access because of the holiday, so we’ve worked our sightseeing plans around that.

We went to the Bastille Day parade this morning.  The parade route was just two blocks from our hotel, so we didn’t have to fight traffic.  We did, however, have a surprise when we left the hotel.  There were policemen at the corner who would not let us walk on the street to the parade route.  We had to go another way, which was three blocks instead.  All along the three-block walk and along the parade route, there was a heavy police presence.  I counted 25-30 police personnel at the intersection where we watched the parade.  People were allowed to stand at the intersection, but not all the way along the street.

It was a military parade that began with a flyover of jets with red, white, and blue “smoke” trailing behind them.  Then I think every version of French military plane flew over in groups of three or four planes.  Following the “air show” (nothing showy like our air shows–just a flyover), we watched units from every possible military division march by.  I was surprised they all used a vocal cadence instead of a drum.  There was only one band, and that was near the end.  (Probably in order of importance–the band carried musical instruments, not weapons.)  Women always marched at the end of the unit.  Hmmm.  After the marchers, came the tanks, and finally, the helicopters overhead.

We walked back to our hotel, but were not allowed to enter the street on which the hotel is located without showing our key cards at every intersection.  When we arrived at the final block, one of the policemen at the corner escorted us the half block to the hotel door.  Neither of us has ever had a police escort before!  We think all the security is due to fear of terrorism on a national holiday.  In my opinion, with all the military presence and all those weapons concentrated in this area, a terrorist would be pretty stupid to strike, but nobody asked for my opinion.

Now we’re off to continue celebrating the holiday with some sightseeing and (if the 40 percent chance of rain doesn’t happen) to attend a free concert and fireworks at the Eiffel Tower this evening.

More on Paris later, including some pictures of the parade after I download them.

Note:  Security near our hotel was probably very strict because President Hollande was viewing the parade from the stands less than two blocks away.