France’s Bastille Day parade meets the Olympic torch relay in an exceptional year

PARIS (AP) — Paris is internet hosting an extra-special visitor for France’s nationwide vacation Sunday — the Olympic flame lighting up town’s grandiose navy parade for Bastille Day.

Simply 12 days earlier than the French capital hosts exceptionally bold and high-security Summer time Video games, the torch relay is becoming a member of up with 1000’s of troopers, sailors, rescuers and medics marching in Paris beneath roaring fighter jets to mark Bastille Day.

Whereas folks round France mark the day with live shows, events and fireworks, right here’s a take a look at what the vacation’s about, and what’s completely different this 12 months:

What does Bastille Day rejoice?

On July 14, 1789, revolutionaries stormed the Bastille fortress and jail in Paris, heralding the beginning of the French Revolution and the top of the monarchy.

The vacation is central to the French calendar, with occasions throughout the nation. It goals to embody the nationwide motto of ‘’liberty, equality and fraternity,” although not everybody in France feels the nation lives as much as that promise.

The Paris parade is the vacation’s spotlight. This 12 months, it’s paying tribute to those that freed France from Nazi occupation 80 years in the past, with a re-enactment of the D-Day landings of June 6, 1944, and a show of emblems of the 31 international locations whose troops contributed to the liberation. About half are African nations that had been beneath French colonial rule throughout World Struggle II.

Who takes half?

Some 4,000 folks and 162 horses will march within the tightly choreographed present, amongst them items that served in NATO missions in japanese Europe, towards Islamic extremists within the Sahel, defending French territories within the South Pacific and international delivery corridors. They’re joined this 12 months by three German officers from a cross-border brigade.

The decorative uniforms are wealthy in symbolism — most notably these of the French International Legion sappers, with lengthy beards, leather-based aprons and axes from their authentic position as route-clearers for advancing armies.

Overhead, 65 plane will fly in formations, together with a British Hurricane fighter alongside French Mirages and Rafales, rescue helicopters and plane utilized in missions from Afghanistan to Mali or worldwide drug busts.

President Emmanuel Macron kicked Sunday’s occasions off with a evaluate of the troops, adopted by a efficiency of the Marseillaise.

The numbers are scaled again in contrast with earlier years, due to Olympics safety measures. Round 130,000 police are deployed round France for the vacation weekend.

What’s the political context?

This 12 months’s Bastille Day provides Macron a second of distraction from the political turmoil he unleashed with snap elections that weakened his pro-business centrist get together and his presidency.

The outcome left a deadlocked parliament with nobody clearly in cost. The prime minister might go away workplace inside days, whereas the left-wing alliance that received probably the most seats is struggling to agree on a proposed alternative.

In the meantime, Russia’s struggle in Ukraine is threatening Europe’s safety. At a gathering with navy leaders Saturday, Macron mentioned France will sustain assist for Ukraine and referred to as for larger protection spending subsequent 12 months due to ‘’approaching threats.’’

What’s completely different this 12 months?

The Olympic torch relay reaches Paris simply in time.

The parade wraps up with the arrival of the flame, escorted by riders on horseback, 25 torchbearers, and cadets forming the shapes of the Olympic rings. The principle torchbearer is Col. Thibault Vallette, equestrian gold medalist within the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Often, the parade travels from the Napoleon-era Arc de Triomphe to the Concorde plaza, the place France’s final king and queen had been beheaded.

This 12 months, Concorde has been remodeled into an enormous Olympic venue for breakdancing, skateboarding and BMX. So the parade route headed to the Bois de Boulogne park on town’s edge as a substitute.

Olympic venue development across the Eiffel Tower means spectators can’t collect beneath the monument to observe its annual fireworks present, both.

After its Bastille Day look, the torch relay will swing by Notre Dame Cathedral, the historic Sorbonne college and the Louvre Museum earlier than heading to different Paris landmarks Monday.

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Comply with AP’s Olympics protection at