Bastille Day!

Every city needs an Eiffel Tower!  The fireworks we saw last night for Bastille Day were the best I have ever seen.  They launch them from around and from off of the Tower.  The Tower was also set to light up in different ways at different times in the show and had rows off huge torches that would flare up in conjunction with the fireworks and lights.  Very impressive.  The show draws a justifiably large crowd; if it hadn’t been for the French spoken all around and the food vendors selling paninis rather than ribs it could easily been July 3 at Taste of Chicago.  It was fun to be in the thick of a celebratory crowd that feels so familiar.  

Picnicking in the crowd.

And it is a small world after all – we watched the show from a tour boat on the Seine and just before the fireworks began a man proposed to his girlfriend.  We congratulated them and found out they live in Chicago about five blocks from where we live.

On the boat.

Today we did a self guided walking tour of the Montmartre neighborhood.  This is where the film Amelie is largely set, where the Moulin Rouge is located and was the stronghold of the Paris Commune.  My guidebook is pretty good, but definitely focuses more on the popular culture history than the revolutionary history.  It’s a shame because that’s a period I would really like to know more about.  It is on my list of things to read up on.  Montmartre is a charming neighborhood and Sacre Coeur was wild.  This beautiful church is, for whatever reason, the place to go if you are a street performer or if you are a tourist who wants to see street performers.  There are street performers everywhere in Paris - on the streets, on the Metro - but this was different.  The setups the performers had were quite elaborate with amps, costumes, and synchronized dance.  There was a woman playing the accordion in front of an enormous, portable, flower covered back drop that made her appear to be a live Frida Kahlo painting.  The crowds watching the performances covered the stairs of the cathedral, patiently and enthusiastically sitting through the rotation of singers, acrobats and Brazilian dance fighters.  It definitely set a mood that set this particular cathedral apart from the many others we have visited.  I’m not sure if that’s good or bad.