The Place de la Concorde, the place the Bastille Day procession historically ends, has been closed in current weeks for the development of short-term Olympic stadiums. As a outcome, the parade needed to be moved to the Avenue Foch, one of the shorter and fewer well-known roads that encompass the Arc de Triomphe.
While the festivities normally draw tens of hundreds of folks and will be simply accessed, authorities restricted the quantity of spectators this yr to 6,200, who — amid area constraints and safety issues — have been required to enroll in advance. Preparations for the Olympics have strained police sources in France, which additionally restricted the quantity of regulation enforcement officers marching in Sunday’s parade.
Organizers maintained the conventional air present. Jets sprayed blue, white and pink smoke — the colours of the French flag — into the clouded sky above Paris.
The show of tanks and planes is normally the centerpiece of the annual parade, which on Sunday additionally marked the 80th anniversary of the nation’s liberation from the Nazis. But the star of this yr’s festivities was the Olympic flame. Riding a horse, Col. Thibaut Vallette, an equestrian gold medalist at the 2016 Olympic Games, carried the torch down the avenue.
After the parade ended, the flame continued its journey by way of central Paris, the place tickets weren’t needed to look at the festivities. Marie Niro, 27, noticed it cross close to the National Assembly, the decrease home of Parliament. “It’s a moment that we share, a moment that unites us,” she mentioned.
Armored automobiles on show for Bastille Day have been positioned just some toes from the short-term Olympic venue that has been constructed on the Place des Invalides; at a close-by recruiting occasion for the army, younger Parisians mingled with vacationers.
Mixing France’s army parade with the arrival of the Olympic flame was “atypical,” Niro acknowledged.
“But we preserve our traditions,” she mentioned.
The Olympic torch will journey round the capital area and surrounding areas over the coming days earlier than making its method again to the metropolis center on July 26, the day of the Opening Ceremonies on the Seine.
Sunday is the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille fortress in Paris on July 14, 1789, which marked the starting of the French Revolution that toppled the monarchy. The event is widely known with occasions throughout France every year, and the Paris army parade and fireworks at the Eiffel Tower are seen as the highlights of the day.
Sunday’s ceremonies have been attended by President Emmanuel Macron, who was accompanied by members of his cupboard, together with Prime Minister Gabriel Attal.
Only per week in the past, it appeared potential that Macron may be compelled to share energy with a far-right prime minister. But legislative elections in France final Sunday resulted as a substitute in political gridlock, with no occasion or alliance having gained an outright majority in the National Assembly.
Attal, who supplied to step down Monday in the wake of the election, was requested by Macron to remain on for “the stability of the country.”
Macron now faces the prospect of a closely diminished mandate, however has sought to painting himself as going about enterprise as typical. Last week, he attended the NATO summit in Washington.
Security stays a paramount concern for the organizers of this yr’s Olympic Games. The Israel-Gaza conflict has prompted bomb scares, an increase in antisemitic incidents and a renewed worry of radicalization right here. Tensions with Russia over its conflict in Ukraine — and the associated bans on the Russian and Belarusian athlete delegations — have elevated the danger of cyberattacks, French officers mentioned.
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin mentioned Saturday that 3,570 folks have been excluded from attending the Olympics, together with “dozens of radical individuals close to Islamist, ultra-left and ultra-right circles.”
French authorities mentioned earlier this yr that they have been aiming to have screened over 1 million folks by the time the Games start, together with coaches, athletes, volunteers and contributors in occasions corresponding to Sunday’s army parade. So far, 770,000 folks have been screened, Darmanin mentioned Saturday.
Annabelle Timsit contributed to this report.
