Today is Bastille day and yesterday the annual parade was held in Saint Pierre. The parades for Bastille day here consist of the military and the local associations for all different types of activities (biking, chess, football, marital arts etc. etc). Sam and Ela have both been involve in Indian "Bollywood" style dancing so they joined their association (along with Aurelie) in the parade.
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| Local military units leading the parade |
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| Wardogs! |
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| Blue, white and red trikes! |
The parade route itself was only a few hundred meters long (which was a good thing for little legs that had already been hanging about for over an hour prior to the parade starting) but it was great to see all the different associations getting involved, in fact considering the numbers marching in it there were probably more people in the parade than watching it!
It was interesting to see the differences to the Paddy's day parades in Ireland that I am used to. There was a military ceremony prior to the start of the parade, which I have never seen in Ireland, French flags and hats in the French colours were distributed to all marching in the parade an there were no floats, just association marching, oh and a lot less drinking!
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| Sam on parade... |
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| ...and Ela... |
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| ...and Maman |
We headed home after the parade but went back into town in the evening as there was a stage set up for music and dancing as well as pretty spectacular fireworks which we watched from the town beach (I got to keep my hands over Ela's ears for the entire time as the fireworks were too loud for her, the things we do for our kids).
All in all a good first Bastille day in France for me (this time last year I was away in Africa for work).
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