Tuesday, 15 July 2008

#23 Bastille Day 2008.

Well people, Bastille day came and went. The weather was beautiful, the crowds were huge, and I apparently missed most of the good stuff...

To start with I ballsed up the parade in the morning. I decided I would start at the Place De Bastille and walk along Rue De Rivoli to the Champs Elysees. Place De Bastille was packed, every corner of the round-about was overflowing, and despite none of them moving I still set off down the road. There were a few people wandering in the same direction, so I thought I couldn't be doing too bad. By the time I got to the Champs Elysees an hour had passed, and there were a shitload of empty seats...

Watching the news later the President of France had been there for some ceremony; couldn't really tell what was going on because it was in French...

After getting to that point I decided to follow what was left of the crowd up to the Arc De Triomphe. That is one massive monument; huge. Again the throng of people leading up to and around the Arc was beyond comprehension. Even getting my soon-to-become-staple lunch of Macdonalds was a difficult task (obviously made a shitload worse by my speaking pethetically little French).

A few photos and a lunch later I headed back to the hostel, waiting for the fireworks that night.

It was there I watched the news, apparently their had been a bunch of skydivers jump down to where I had started, so I missed that to!

Still, I managed to fuck the fireworks up as well...

Without knowing where they actually were, I headed back towards the Arc. Again it was packed, and again because I can't understand a word anyone's saying, I just followed a crowd into a big open area (this is after wandering around like an idiot for half an hour) with a view of the Eiffel Tower, and waited for the fireworks to begin.

And waited...

Then they began. Well, we heard them...

You've never seen several hundred people move so fast as when firework's have started an none of them can see...

I have to say, after everyone had spilled onto the street, and we had all found a spot to see, they were pretty fucking awesome...

My camera went flat so you'll just have to trust me, or look here.

My favourite part of the day?

Without doubt it was the two times I walked past a big haired black woman, obviously drunk, with a can of Kronenberg tilted oh-so-delicately in her hand. She was laughing randomly, usually followed by a sentence or two in French, then another laugh. Tight white jeans. Big pointy shoes. Fantastic. I had visions of her falling on her arse later in the night, I'm pretty sure she would have kept laughing and gobbing off...

I couldn't understand any of it, but I think one of them was directed at me...

No comments: