Are there any MNers living in Paris?

[zafferana]

We'll be there next Thurs and I'm just wondering what happens on Bastille Day. Do they have fireworks and parades and things and, if so, where's a good place to see them? We're staying in a hotel on the right bank, near the Ile de la Cité. Merci!

Hi,

Depends on your tolerance for crowds really! I'm attaching a map for the fireworks, for the défilé you'll be able to see the flyovers of the planes etc from wherever you are - but jardin des tuileries is a good bet. Access to champs Ulysses is complicated some years and because of Vigipirate ( anti terror dispositif ) the bag checks can be horrendous.

For fire works I'm not a massive crowd fan so I usually go to the top of parc de belleville which has a great view over Paris - there is a nice terrasse too.

This photo is from belleville parc

This is from Montmartre

www.parisinfo.com/decouvrir-paris/les-grands-rendez-vous/paris-fete-le-14-juillet/feu-d-artifice-du-14-juillet-paris/feu-d-artifice-du-14-juillet

All public transport round the Eiffel Tower stops at 7pm and the fireworks don't start until 10.30 ish if IIRC.

You can also watch from some bridges - but they are so full of people ...

This is also a guide

www.cnews.fr/france/2020-07-12/14-juillet-les-meilleurs-endroits-pour-voir-le-feu-dartifice-paris-977948

Thank you both so much - the map is incredibly helpful!

As we'll be with my MIL (80 years old), I think we probably need to just avoid the whole thing, or just walk down by the river and hope that we can see some fireworks in the distance. She'll never cope with the crowds, we don't particularly like crowds either, and we're trying to keep her from catching Covid while she's in Europe, so crowds generally are something we're doing our best to avoid.

We're arriving on Weds, thank goodness. When we booked this trip I'd completely forgotten about Bastille Day, because we never normally go to France in July.