On Sunday, the Olympic flame will illuminate the grand military parade in honour of Bastille Day.
The torch relay, 12 days before the eagerly awaited the 2024 Olympic Games, will bring together thousands of soldiers, sailors, rescue workers and medics as they march through Paris to the roar of fighter jets in honour of Bastille Day. President Emmanuel Macron and dozens of dignitaries will lead the event.
Some 4,000 men and 162 horses are to take part in the parade, which will march in a carefully choreographed show, including units engaged in NATO missions in Eastern Europe, the Sahel, the South Pacific and the world’s shipping lanes, but this year will include three German officers from the cross-border brigade. Also, 65 aircraft, including the British Typhoon fighter, the French Mirage and Rafale will take to the skies of France.
Bastille Day dates back to 14 July 1789 when revolutionaries stormed the Bastille fortress and prison in Paris, marking the beginning of the French Revolution and the end of the monarchy. The holiday is central to French culture and seeks to embody the national motto of liberty, equality and fraternity.
This year’s military parade pays tribute to those who liberated France from Nazi occupation 80 years ago, with a reenactment of the landing on 6 June 1944 and a display of the emblems of the 31 countries whose troops contributed to the liberation.
As for French President Macron, Bastille Day will provide a distraction from the political turmoil he triggered with snap elections that weakened not only his pro-business centrist party, but also his presidency, leaving parliament deadlocked and Prime Minister Gabriel Attal with one leg out of office.
The parade culminates with the carrying of the flame, accompanied by riders on horseback, 25 torchbearers and cadets forming Olympic ring figures, and travelling from the Napoleonic-era Arc de Triomphe to Place de la Concorde, where the last king and queen of France were beheaded. After Bastille Day, the torch relay will pass by the Cathedral of Our Lady of Paris, the historic Sorbonne University and the Louvre.
