As expected, we woke up late and had no interest on going to the Champs Elysées to watch the military parade. But Géraldine has an enormous TV so we were able to see President Macrón arrive, review the troops, and then sit for two hours seeing the many different sections of the French armed forces march in perfect timing past the VIP area, where one of the main guests was President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
My personal favorites were the representatives of the Foreign Legion, who moved at a much slower pace than the marching pace of the other units, and had axes and aprons as opposed to sabers or automatic weapons. They looked like a tough bunch. Besides the units of the regular army, navy, and air force, the Gendarmerie, the police, the fire fighters, and the diverse number of military academies had a good representation.
At that time the demonstration jets flew overhead, painting the sky on the colors of the French flag, which opened the parade of the jets, radar airplanes, strategic planes, and helicopters. In the meantime, the mechanized units got going and rumbled through Champs Elysées. The planes and mechanized units included other members of the European Union, so together they showed a significant defense force.
After hearing a rousing version of the Marseillese the parade finished at about noon, we had lunch, and then made plans to join Jean-Michel and his daughter Emma for a metro trip to Les Invalides, because in the past some of the tanks and helicopters had been in display there. Alas, this year cuts to the budget nixed that part of the celebration, so after moving like true Parisians through the Paris metro we arrived to the lively gay district, where we stopped to have a drink.
Once we were back at the home of Fabién and Jean-Michel we met Rasmus, Emma's pug, who was naturally enchanted to see people and in particular his favorite person, Géraldine. We had gathered there to see the match between France and Spain, and naturally we all hoped that France would win. But any gathering is a good excuse to eat, so our gracious hosts had prepared some delicious appetizers of cheese, salmon, Arab bread, and a large amount of pizza of every sort you can imagine. The French have embraced the American style of pizza and are not shy to pile several ingredients on one pizza (e.g., chorizo and onions, ham and gorgonzola cheese, or hashed roast beef and bell peppers - but I didn't see any pizza with pineapple, so they have not committed the ultimate sin). It was a great, amiable afternoon, marred only by the two goals scored by the Spanish team, whose defense Les Bleus were unable to crack. Quel dommage!
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