Fireworks

This post was meant for yesterday, but I've been having epic internet problems. Now, however, I am taking advantage of some valuable time online! Before the fireworks, I met up with a friend by the Arc de Triomphe, which was pretty as usual.



It was threatening to rain, but fortunately that didn't happen. All over the city I saw soldiers still decked out from the parade, and a bunch of guys from the Indian army went marching by! The scammers were out in full force, unfortunately -- there are young women who walk around asking people if they speak English, and then they show a sign for you to read, asking for money, etc. Sometimes the sign is total gibberish and meant to distract and confuse. They usually have a partner who sneaks up behind you and tries to swipe your wallet while you are reading. I also ran into another ring scammer at the Quai Branly -- basically someone will pretend to have found a gold ring on the ground and they act very excited. They then claim they can't make it to the pawn shop to sell it. Would you, perhaps, be interested in buying it from them for a very low price so you can sell it yourself? The ring is, of course, worth practically nothing.

Anyway, Ruben and I wandered over to the Champ de Mars, but it was so packed with people that we couldn't bear to stay. A French singer named Johnny Hallyday was giving a concert that had people pretty worked up -- he appears to be a French icon on the level of Elvis, based on the warmup music and the fact that I saw people dressed like the King. Unless, of course, Elvis is still alive and well and happens to celebrate Bastille Day.



The fireworks didn't get going until 10:45, so I ended up chilling out in a cafe for a while. Then we headed over to a side street with a good view of the Eiffel Tower, so we wouldn't have to assert our space in a swarm of people. The tower was lit up as it usually is at night, and then, much like the start of a Rolling Stones concert, everything went dark. You could hear loud exploding noises, but couldn't see anything. Spotlights flitted quickly over the tower, but there was no action until, suddenly, the torches started up.



Then we were treated to about half an hour of fireworks, known as feu d'artifice in French. It was pretty great. My favorites are the ones that explode into lots of little flames that hang in the air like spilled glitter. At one point, the tower looked like a sparkly volcano!



All in all Bastille day was a pretty great time. My legs are still killing me from standing all day!