So I thought I'd have to be all alone on the greatest day in France :( Mr. Special had to go to the UK for his graduation and none of my friends had time to come and visit me :( There was one last chance though, a Finnish girl who I know from Aber :) And she didn't have any plans either :)
Going to see the military parade was a slight fail, because neither of us wanted to go and stand in a spot for three hours before the event. We waited a bit in front of Madeleine but then thought that it might be too far and decided to go closer to the champs-elysee. Quite unsuccesfully, because all the roads were blocked (due to embassies and important buildings...) and when we finally got somewhere close - there were thousand of people everywhere. Not a fan of crowds. There were people who had climbed on trees, on posts, sitting on traffic lights, quite funny actually :D We saw some marching part of the parade :) so it wasn't a complete waste of time. And then decided to head back to Madeleine and go to her place for food. On our way back we were lucky though and saw tanks and military cars drive past us - and they drove fast too, not like in the parade they would, which was great to see (and hear - tanks make such a noise!). Also we saw planes! And they did quite a few circles above our heads - usually it's only 2-3 times they fly over you - this time it was at least 6-7! :) Horrendous crowd in front of Madeleine now :( we were litrally moving like bumpercars with babysteps. Witness a little domestic fight between a couple: the woman was just wondering why they had taken that route when she'd suggested going round it. They had little patience with each other and the crowd :D
At 6 PM we started making our way to the Eiffel tower to scout out the best place to enjoy the fireworks :) Around 7 we decided that in the middle of Champ de mars a little left from the main parc, on the steps was the perfect place :) so we sat there for 5 hours :D Sounds horrible but the atmosphere was so nice that time flew by, not for a second did I think why why why didn't I just stay home :) The concert started at 9.30. It could've been a bit more upbeat, because some of the songs were too sleepy in my opinion, it was slowly getting crowded around us. And the good thing is everyone was sitting and by 11 o'clock there was hardly any space to move now :) This was the first time I've gotten to see fireworks while sitting down the entire time :) At one point three older people were stood up. And when everyone realised that they weren't planning to sit down anywhere, they got told off by various people and were forced to move :) That's just rude to stand in front of sitting people! especially as you're the only ones standing.
And then it began. The theme was war and peace and it lasted for about 35 minutes. Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And it all corresponded to the music being played. Proper! At one point there were two guys in brilliant white suits climbing the tower. What an effect :) By far the best firework show I've ever seen :) I didn't get tired once (usually I get tired halfway through and hope that it finishes already). The last bang lit the whole area up and my camera managed to take a photo just then - you can just see people's heads at the bottom - the rest is white :D (I'll add some photos later :)).
And now I have to get back home (my friend lives 15 minutes away by foot, I had to take the metro -.-). The challenge begins. Line 6 (the most obvious for the tower) had been under some construction for a while now so no point in going there. The next one closest to me was ecole militaire nad obviously half the champs de mars was headed that way. When I finally got there the police had blocked it off (probably too many people trying to get in at once... makes sense). Fudge I don't even have a map!!!!! And it's dark! So I moved along with the crowd - a lot of them had also wanted to go to the metro. I decided the best bet is to walk along the seine, then atleast I won't get lost on a random street. Saw another metro station surrounded by the crowd trying to get in. As it wasn't the line I needed thought I'd just walk to the Assamblee nationale (my line has a stop there). Half an hour after midnight I finally got there (there were loads of people on the streets making their way home so I wasn't really scared walking alone). Just missed the previous train and had to wait for the next one for 7 minutes. I was a bit scared because Concorde is right before my little stop and I had visions of the train being full coming from there (the last one wasn't though). There were loads of people waiting on the other side and their train came right before ours and it was packed (obviously loads of people didn't get on and had to wait for the next one), our side ooohed outloud excpecting the worst from our train too. But when we saw that our train was luckily half empty everyone was cheering and applauding :) It got full though with each station - the worst being Montparnasse but nothing too severe and I even got to sit down most of the time :)
Ttyl ;)
Jazzz...
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