Vivre La France!

It's been a strange day today, although we've still had a good day which started with a chat with CharlotteJ to see how her mum is.

We then went for breakfast, before having a wander into town to look at where the Bastille Day parade was going to be, but we couldn't get anywhere! Those barriers I mentioned yesterday were completely closed to the public, which meant that no-one could watch the parade this afternoon.

Whilst wandering around, we were searched by the police twice, Alan was frisked and then tonight we had hand held metal detectors run over our bodies!  The police and army presence was incredible, but that did give us a sense of security (pardon the pun!),  and I found the bag and body searches quite reassuring.  There were boats out at sea, patrolling all day and night, soldiers patrolling along the Promenade des Anglais (see extras) and police vans blocking roads with police on every street corner.  

We had a lovely lunch at La Favola and then wandered back into town to see Le Patrouille , who are the French version of the Red Arrows do a fly past.  They came and went very quickly, but at least I managed to get this shot.

The only way to watch the parade was through the gaps in between the barriers, and Alan managed to get some shots with President Sarkozy and President Hollande in them (see extras). President Macron was also there, as was Prince Albert of Monaco, but they were blocked by a statue so he couldn't get a shot of them.

We didn't end up seeing the concert, and they didn't have any fireworks, but they had a light show.  It was amazing and also very eerie!  They turned off all the street lights, released about 300 balloons into the air and then 86 beams of light were illuminated - one for each person killed in last years' attack. It was very moving!

We got back to the apartment just in time to watch the Paris firework display on TV.  It was incredible and made up for us not seeing them here.

Anyway it's late and tomorrow's another day. Night night!