La Fête Nationale

Happy Bastille Day!!! Today marks the day that the people stormed the Bastille, a turning point in the French Revolution. The day is celebrated with a big military parade down the Champs-Elycées. It would have been nice to see it in person, but we got a much better view from our living room TV. Besides, there was a huge rain storm on and off during the morning and the people outside were drenched. I got this picture from the internet.
When I saw the parade and then the air show (the weather was nice for that), it made me wonder what it was like for the French people when Germany occupied France in WWII. There were a ton of military troops, and vehicles. It was very humbling seeing the troops marching the streets and thinking about what it was like with Hitler at the head of the troops.

Then during the airshow, there were jets and fighter planes and helicopters all over. They were quite loud but the boys thought it was cool. I don't imagine it was cool during the war when people were afraid of being bombed.



Speaking of bombed and loud there was a big party in an apartment in our courtyard last night. It didn't really get going until about 11 PM. The loud music and talking and everything echoed like crazy off the buildings in the courtyard. I managed to find an ear plug and go to bed around 12:30 AM or so. I'm just glad they didn't wake the boys.

As tradition, we had a crèpe fête. We invited some friends over and had dinner crèpes with chicken, sautéed onions, and melted cheese, and of course the classic ham and cheese crèpes. For dessert we had crèpes with Nutella, lemon/sugar, fresh fruit and whipped cream, and of course powdered sugar and marshmallows. For some reason, Timmy doesn't like crèpes, so he ate marshmallows. It was fun to have friends over and their little boy and Timmy played quite well together. I foresee many playdates in the future.

Our friends didn't stay for fireworks because they started at 11P PM and they had a one year old. We let Matt and Thomas stay up. We stayed home because we could see them from our balcony. Perhaps next year, we'll brave the crowds down by the Eiffel Tower and go watch them.



Thomas lasted until they were done and then we asked them to go to the living room for family prayers. We found Thomas like this literally two minutes later.