Article
A Historic Summer Celebration Ahead in Paris
Published: Mon 08 Apr 2013 at 16:58
Updated: Mon 08 Apr 2013 at 16:58
Holidaymakers thinking about a city getaway rather than a beach holiday this year should consider booking cheap flights to Paris with Jet2.com for the Bastille Day celebrations in July.
Initially known as ‘La Fête de la Fédération’, Bastille Day is an important national holiday held each year to commemorate the storming of Bastille prison on 14 July, 1789. Widely considered as the event that launched the French Revolution, it paved the way for the First Republic and the birth of French democracy.
Revolutionary Celebrations
The first Bastille Day was held in 1790, and at the time was thought to herald the end of the Revolution. Unfortunately it took a further nine years for this to happen, but today it is the festivities, rather than the bloodshed that followed, that are commemorated.
While Bastille Day is celebrated all over France, the capital is definitely the best place to be, although visitors will have to get there early to secure a spot at the Place de la Bastille, where the prison once stood. The day begins with the arrival of the French president at the Champs-Élysées, followed by the longest, oldest and most impressive military parade in Europe. Festivities continue with military fly-pasts, motorcades, live music, garden parties and a host of other events - many of them free. The day culminates in a grand firework display above the Eiffel Tower, which is best viewed from the Champs de Mars.
