Bastille Day (Quatorze Juillet ) Fireworks, Eiffel Tower, Paris 2015, Part 1

One thing that has totally impressed us about France is the showmanship.  We've been wowed by so many spectacles over here, like nothing we've seen anywhere before.  The fireworks at the Eiffel Tower are the premier example.  A true fireworks artist spends months designing the series of sequences that make up the ebb and flow of the show.  And the fireworks are not only sent up from the ground, but actually fire from every part of the Eiffel Tower throughout the show.  This is our third year, and they've all been unforgettable.

After having shot the Bastille Day fireworks from the Champs de Mars the last couple of years, I tried a different viewpoint, with hopes of getting some reflections in the Seine.   Previous years' photos are quite different, so, in case you'd like to have a look, you can see them here: 2014 Paris Eiffel Tower Fireworks, and here: 2013 Paris Eiffel Tower Fireworks.

It was a beautiful night, cool with a light breeze.  Crowds stretched for miles in every direction.  I know, because I walked miles in a radius around the tower, searching for a good viewpoint.  The best ones were overwhelmed with spectators, including crowds of photographers with tripods.  There were some funny spots where you would see a narrow stripe of people standing in the street - all looking where the fireworks would be - just between two buildings.

[For some people, these images are too big to fit on their screen.  Click on any image to see all the images in a "lightbox" that resizes the images to fit your screen.]

The show lasts a full thirty five minutes.  More than once, the crowd thought, "That must have been the finale.", only to have it build up again.  Pretty great show.  The colored spotlights are a great compliment to the fireworks.

An all-yellow show. That blue light on the water is one of the police speedboats patrolling the river every other minute of the show.

The bridge you see between us and the tower is the Passy Viaduc.  It has car lanes on bottom, and a metro line on the top.  Trains were going by every other minute of the show, so the riders got quite a view.

The Eiffel Tower sprouts into a palm tree of blue and green light.  The cool thing is, the ones at the top fire in sequence, rotating like the hand of a clock.

A lot of people won't like this one, but I have to let my creative side out every once in a while.  I can imagine people saying is "Oh, that's all done in Photoshop." Nope!  It was all done in the camera at the time of the photo.

Earlier that same day, I went to the Catorze Juillet military parade on the Champs Élysées. Click here to see the photos.

More fireworks photos coming soon.

Bastille Day Celebrations on the Champs Elysees

A few photos from the daytime Bastille Day celebrations along the Champs Elysees in Paris. As usual, the French put on a great show. The crowds lined the streets for miles (or kilometers if you prefer), so you had to get there early to be able to see anything. Unfortunately, getting there early isn't one of our strong suits. :)

The Quai d'Orsay, in front of the Assemblé Nationale, was swarming with platoons, each in a different ceremonial uniform.  Some were from different countries, but many were French.  I never figured out why there are so many different uniforms.  I guess they are various different honor guards.

Another platoon, but these were feeding into the Champs Élysées from a side street.  President Hollande has spent billions deploying the French military all over north Africa and the middle east fighting against Islamic extremists.  ISIS/ISIL has declared France a major enemy, and called for sympathetic fanatics to attack inside France wherever possible.  On the other hand, hundreds of French citizens, mostly radicalized Muslims (even young women) have crossed into Syria to fight for ISIS.  But that's a whole other story.  On with the pictures. 

It's Bastille Day, so they stormed the Bastille, right?  :)  Well, not exactly.  People were so desperate to see the parade, which was lined with crowds ten deep every inch of the course, that they risked life and limb trying to get a view.  This little escapade was brought to an abrupt end about a minute after I took these photos, when a French policeman approached and used his most authoritative tone to speak an internationally recognized word:  "HEY!!!!"  That was all it took to send them scampering back down the gates. 

At least there were a few things you could see even if you weren't on the front row of the parade sidelines.  French stealth fighters were one of several groups of military planes that did flyovers. 

There were quite a few mounted brigades in the procession. They look pretty cool in their ceremonial uniforms. 

Jennifer got this great one.  Concentration.

The best flyover, with colored smoke painting the sky with the French flag.  Red, white, and blue!

It's about as patriotic an event as there can be, and the French are just as patriotic as us Americans.  I never really thought about that until living here.  The French really love their country!