Good Weekend to Be French

What a weekend to be in Paris!

On Saturday we celebrated Bastille Day (not called that here, it's formally "la Fête nationale")  by catching a glimpse of the military parade and air show at the Champs Elysees.

The weather is glorious, if a little hot and humid, so the whole city was out waving flags. We didn't get a great view, but we loved walking around the city with so many of the roads closed to cars.

That night, we braved the crowds and headed to Pont de Grenelle (an easy 15 minute walk from our apartment) where we have a great view of the Eiffel Tower, for the fireworks at 11pm.

(We looked in to going up onto our roof, but didn't feel brave enough to knock on the door of the 5th floor neighbor or use the rickety scaffold.)

We should have listened to Alice and headed toward the Trocadero, because our view was lousy and the crowds were getting rowdy. We hightailed it out of there before it was over. We saw some video the next day, and it looked like an awesome show. We'll know better for next time.

Then we had the World Cup Finale to cheer on the boys in "Bleus" on Sunday. The World Cup is my absolute favorite sporting event (I love soccer) and it was fun to be in a European city for the tournament and all the hoopla.

Even more fun to be here for the CELEBRATION. WORLD CHAMPIONS HERE IN FRANCE. We talked about heading out to watch the game at the Eiffel Tower or Trocadero, but we decided if I really wanted to see the game, my apartment tv would have the best view.

And we'll now spend the rest of the night listening to cars going by, honking their horns and yelling. An easy price to pay for victory.

And tomorrow the girls and I will head out to get the commemorative t-shirt. As Leah said "isn't it great to live in a country that won the World Cup?" Yup, it sure is.




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