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Bastille Day celebrations in Paris: Bastille Day is back, sort of. France celebrated its national holiday Wednesday with thousands of troops marching in a Paris parade, warplanes roaring overhead and traditional parties around the country, after last year's events were scaled back because of virus fears. This year those fears are still lurking, but the government decided to go ahead with the parade on the Champs-Elysees anyway, as part of a broader effort to return to pre-pandemic activity. Let us take a look at some of the images:
Alpha jets from the French Air Force Patrouille de France fly past Eiffel Tower during the Bastille Day celebrations in Paris, France. (Reuters Photo) -
French President Emmanuel Macron and French Armies Chief of Staff General Francois Lecointre stand in the command car as they review troops prior to the annual Bastille Day military parade on the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris, France. (Reuters Photo)
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Leading the parade were members of a French-driven European force fighting extremists in Mali and the surrounding Sahel region. (AP Photo)
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Organizers of this year's event dubbed it an "optimistic Bastille Day" aimed at "winning the future" and "celebrating a France standing together behind the tricolor (flag) to emerge from the pandemic." (AP Photo)
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Bastille Day marks the storming of the Bastille prison in eastern Paris on July 14, 1789, commemorated as the birth of the French Revolution. (AP Photo)
A total of 73 warplanes, medical helicopters and other aircraft traversed the skies over the Paris region. (Reuters Photo) -
Among others honored at the parade were military medics who have shuttled vaccines to France's overseas territories, treated virus patients or otherwise helped fight the pandemic. (AP Photo)
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Cadets of Saint-Cyr military school walk down the Champs-Elysees avenue during the Bastille Day parade in Paris. (AP Photo)
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The number of onlookers was limited, and they were restricted to a small section of the parade. (Reuters Photo)
People watch armoured vehicles driving down the Champs-Elysees avenue during the Bastille Day parade in Paris, France. (Reuters Photo)
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