An American celebrating Bastille Day in Paris

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by Elizabeth Milovidov

So while my family and I may not get much action for a July 4th celebration, Bastille day more than makes up for it. Bastille Day is on July 14th and it marks the storming of the Bastille prison in 1789. It is considered the first major event of the French Revolution of 1789 – just think Les Miserables and the barricades and you’ve got a pretty good image.

The French are very serious about democracy and there are numerous Independence Day celebrations to confirm that fact: Fireman’s Annual Ball, fireworks launched from Trocadero, a military parade on the Avenue des Champs Elysees, and more. There are so many things to choose from that we usually end up wandering from the Place de la République down to the Hotel de Ville. From there the kids can watch the military parade and see platoons and squadrons and horse brigades and just about every other military branch in France. The military personnel are in their finest and you can feel Gallic pride in every step.

One of my personal favorites is the airplane parade, where hundreds of planes fly in formation from La Defense down the Champs Elysees, over the Arc de Triomphe, continuing past the Place de la Concorde and ripping across Paris. It is truly a site to behold.

Once we’ve had our fill of military celebrations, we then hop on the metro and head to the Jardins de Tuileries, where the kids can run around at the fair and ride the carrousel, ferris wheel or other rides. Lunch along the way in a Parisian bistro and the kids are set for the day.

Because it stays light so late in the evening, fireworks are not until 10pm or so and the kids are usually out like a light. (Mom and Dad too if the truth be told.) But that doesn’t stop some of the more hardcore from heading to the Champs de Mars (the big field under the Eiffel Tower) in order to position themselves for a great view of the fireworks launched from the Trocadero.

And if you look around the Champs de Mars and just look at the families walking together or the kids running around or turn your head up and watch the fireworks, you can almost pretend that you are at a stadium in the US. If you close your eyes and listen to the boom and crackle of the fireworks, followed by the oohs and ahhs and cheers, you can feel pretty confident in thinking that families are families wherever you are and democratic celebrations bring out the best – in any country.




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Elizabeth is a California lawyer who moved to Paris in 1995 to make some dreams come true. Fast forward a few years, she’s fluent in French (more or less), married a Russian (wow), worked as General Counsel in two French companies (no billables), and became the mom to two little boys (can you say epidural in French?). She morphed her legal and business background into a part-time teaching and children’s rights advocacy gig and now lectures on child rights, or leads child safety workshops (Internet, school security, child proofing, etc) or blogs and then picks up her boys and spends the afternoons in absolute mommy bliss (well okay, most of the time).


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