Day 44: BASTILLE DAY

So today is Bastille Day and we decided to wake up and go to the parade this morning on les Champs d'Elysees. We had heard that the metro was a nightmare on Bastille day but we decided that we were immune to it or something so we got on line 1 which was definitely the worst because it literally has every stop on the Champs. Every stop we got off was closed so you could get off the metro but then RATP officers were at the exits not allowing anybody to exit the station which created a sort of mass panic because people kept coming and nobody was leaving so you got a kind of feeling of being trapped but we eventually found a station that was open. We were worried that we had missed the parade but when we got out of the metro we heard a noise and looked up and it was the planes flying by with the red, white, and blue so we were right on time.
We then watched all of the planes fly by which was amazing because they're so huge and glorious. It didn't seem real. We also watched all of the army tanks drive down the champs followed by the fireman. It was an amazing display of military fortitude and it was really really cool.
We then walked through a ton of foot traffic down the champs towards the Palais d'Elysee which is where the President of the Republic lived and we actually got to see him and all of his cars and police motorcycles drive past us and into the gates to the house.
After that excitement we waved and clapped for a few buses of military men and women (most of whom were young and very attractive men) who were smiling and waving enthusiastically back. I didn't have time to give any of them my phone number back which was a bummer but we decided it was nice just to watch them go by.
We then walked back to the Fete des Tuileries which is the carnival in the garden in front of the Louvre. We had a great lunch and gelato and just walked around until we decided that we needed to build up strength for the fireworks tonight. I am posting this before then because even though I promise to take pictures and I know I will inevitably instagram a picture, most of you have seen fireworks before so I'm sure you can imagine what they look like. The plan however, is to buy some food and have a dinner picnic in a park and drink some wine until the sun goes down and then watch the fireworks. It might be a long night since I hear that returning anywhere on Bastille Day is impossible and we live in the most residential and outskirty part of Paris.