Bastille Day: My strangest day in Paris

July 14 was the strangest day I’ve had in Paris.

Considered the French national day, Bastille Day celebrates the storming of the Bastille prison in 1789; an act of rebellion during the French Revolution that could be seen as the end of the monarchy and the beginning of the new French nation. Unlike the fourth of July in America, le quatorze juillet is much more focused on the military, and even features a huge military parade along the Champs-Elysées on the morning of the 14th.

While I skipped the parade, I decided to head to the Arc de Triomphe later in the afternoon. There, the largest French flag I had ever seen was fluttering in the curve of the arch, and soldiers were standing guard next to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

This is where my day began to get strange. 

1. Costume-suit up. As I was leaving the Arc, this guy in a military suit came out of the metro and acted as if he was from a previous century — he was very quiet, walked slowly, seemed confused by his surroundings. Of course people started asking to take pictures with him; when this girl came up, that’s when he broke character. I think this photo captures the bizarre moment well:

2. Eiffel Tower Disco Ball. Not much I really need to say about this. C’est groovy, baby.

3. Army and navy and tanks, oh my! Outside Trocadero were groups of men from different branches of the military and some of their respective vehicles of battle. Everyone from kids to adults were encouraged to climb on top, peek around, and have their photos taken on these machines and with the servicemen. (I only saw four women in uniform the entire time I was there.)

4. Flash dancers? Not sure if this group in pink was aiming to be flash mob; if so they did a terrible job at getting anyone to notice them. After their small routine, while pretty much no one but me watched, they came to the tank, climbed on top, and posed in one of their dance moves. I really wish I knew what they had been up to.

5: Reggae music…? So to sum up the situation: There are kids climbing on armored vehicles, there is a disco ball in the Eiffel Tower, and there is reggae music BLASTING while all this is going on. I just stood there thinking: this is surreal.

6: Just driving my tank, no big deal. So then the military guys all put their armored vehicles in reverse and left with deceptively simple ease, as if they were just a few cars maneuvering through a parking lot.

7. Germans? After spending over an hour walking around this display of French military, suddenly four German soldiers rocked up out of nowhere and I was highly confused. For some reason my mind went to war and violence: Are they spies? Are they here for a throwdown in a parking lot? No, they were just checking out the Eiffel Tower…in their German military uniforms. On French National Day.

8. Look at this VIEW. After going home to change, I went to Montparnasse — by a gracious last-minute invite, I was able to attend a friend of a friend’s Bastille Day party. This friend lived on the 27th floor, and — well, just take a look at this view for yourself. Breathtaking. (I’m such a sucker for good views — in Singapore my flat was on the 44th floor.)

9. Partying with MIT grads: This is what happens when 90% of people at a party are either current MIT students, or recent MIT grads currently going for their PhD in neuroscience: There will be at least one person with a tattoo that says SCIENCE, everyone will get absurdly excited to find a pack of The 24 Game and play it for at least thirty minutes, and there will be some worldly sort of liquor you’ve never heard of before — in our case, someone brought Mangalore, a liquor made with spice and pepper that tastes just as strong as it sounds.

10. Look at this VIEW (again): The Bastille Day fireworks started at 10 pm, and the view was, as expected, spectacular. It was a solid show too, lasting over thirty minutes. This was much better than my original plan of crowding with thousands of other people to see the fireworks on the Champs de Mars.