The Fireman's Ball & Bastille Day

July 13, 2016:

On my travels home to Paris, I was treated to my first glimpses of Belgium. It was so charming! It has moved up on my bucket list of countries to explore. I navigated the Paris transit system like a pro, arriving at Marie's workplace with no setbacks. I got to meet her lovely colleagues and then returned to her apartment for a rest.

In Paris, each of the fire stations organize Le Bal des Pompiers (the Fireman's Ball) on the eve of Bastille Day. The idea is that the celebrations of the French Revolution can begin directly at midnight, and it is a way for citizens in the community to pay tribute to their emergency services.

The firemen also put on intermittent "shows". In one instance, they climbed the side of a building one handed using a rope, in order to rescue a doll. It was glorious. It was all outdoor, and the dance floor was initially occupied by small children who had some of the best moves I've ever seen, but soon enough the adults took over and it became comfortably crowded.

 Several of Marie's friends and neighbours joined us, including a mother and daughter from Portugal, and the daughter's boyfriend from Réunion, an island in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar. They taught me that "Danza Kuduro", which I had always known was a Portguese song, was actually a line dance. This video isn't from that night, but it is a little bit of Lyon nostalgia:

I also learned great French classic songs like this one:

It also featured fun hand gestures. By the end, I had most of the words and actions and everyone was so proud of me (in my own head.... probably they didn't really care).

I taught them all the actions for the verses of the YMCA and they joked about how most French people are so terrible at English that they don't realize that the chorus is the letters Y, M, C, A, and that they just make sounds and copy the actions without realizing what they are doing. I don't doubt it.

We had a blast dancing until we were sufficiently tired out. The only déception of the night was that I hadn't managed to dance with a firefighter. I guess I'll have to go back?

July 14, 2016:

Bastille Day celebrates the French commitment to republican values and laïcism (the separation of Church and State. The French Revolution was a revolt against the monarchy for the good of the people. It also represents a commitment to democracy - liberté, égalité, fraternité. I don't know what Canada's motto is. Do we have one?

According to the Canadian Encyclopedia:

The motto of the Dominion of Canada is a Mari usque ad Mare which is officially translated "From Sea to Sea" and "D'un océan à l'autre."

It's not quite as inspiring. (Also we have three seas, so probably it should be From Sea to Sea to Sea.... just saying.)

Marie, Julien and I planned to attend the défilé (parade), and we watched the pre-parade news coverage on television as we ate breakfast. To me, it seemed as though it was advertising and recruiting for the military as much as it was celebrating the role of these public servants in maintaining French security. As we walked toward the parade route, we discussed the soldiers throughout Paris armed with machine guns - machine guns are something I've only really seen in films and in Belize City when unloading from our cruise ship. It's a surreal experience to walk around and to know that there is someone in close proximity to you that could kill you if you make a "wrong move" or something perceived as suspicious. Marie and Julien talked a little about their training - how they are trained to fire these guns only as a last resort - and how these armed guards make them feel safer in light of the Charlie Hebdo massacre and other attentats (terrorist attacks) in Europe.

Our bags were checked by police as we entered the zone along the parade route, and there were police stationed at most metro station entrances and exits. The most we were really able to see of the parade were the overhead flights by the air force.The coloured jet stream was pretty cool though.

A friend of Marie's captured this photo near the Arc de Triomphe.

We tried several options for getting within the sight lines of the parade, but we were too late, so we continued on.

We walked along the Seine, and I learned that famous Pont des Arts where everyone in Paris puts their love locks had been altered. The weight of locks was too much for the bridge to bear, so they replaced the wire panels with glass panels.

Beginning to get hungry, we walked towards the Saint Michel neighbourhood across the Seine from Notre Dame de Paris, which is a good neighbourhood to find something to eat according to my Parisian guides. We chose to eat at Le Paradis du Fruit, a chain restaurant which offered a number of delicious vegetarian options, and I saw the Fontaine Saint-Michel for the first time.

The central figure is the archangel Michael depicted defeating the devil. (After searching it on Wikipedia, I learned it was attacked by the French in 1870 after Napoleon was captured by the Germans because it had eagles on it - the German symbol.)

We considered going to the Musée d'Orsay, one of my favourite art museums in Paris, wondering whether it would be open on a national holiday only to find outrageously long lines and crowds of people taking advantage of their day off to appreciate art. Julien, having just joined Pokémon GO, was eager to go to the Jardin de Luxembourg where there was some sort of meeting happening, but we were all a little tired of walking and of having our plans thwarted that we opted to return to their quartier in Paris for a drink. The name of this open-air cantina was La Javelle, and it's located at the Port de Javel bas. Apparently they frequently host live music, dance classes and other activities. The central seating area is surrounded by various food trucks and the bar, and they are all right next to the water.

It was a great way to spend the afternoon, and it was nice and easy-going so we wouldn't be too tired out before the feux d'artifices (fireworks). We spent the time after dinner, and before the fireworks watching OSS117: Cairo, Nest of Spies, and OSS117: Lost in Rio. Both are parodies of spy movies like the James Bond franchise. They star Jean Dujardin and they are hilarious.

There was a decent view of the fireworks happening at both the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower from the hill in Issy-les-Moulineaux where their apartment is located, but we were a little too late, once again, and all the good spots to see were taken up by very tall men who then added insult to injury by propping their children up on their shoulders. We watched for a few minutes next to some local police officers while standing on the median in road which was raised enough that we could see, but it wasn't particularly comfortable so we turned in early, completely oblivious to the terror attacks happening at the fireworks in Nice.