JULY 14TH. The famous military parade which commemorates the history of July 14 will take place on the Champs-Elysées at 10 a.m. this Friday. We tell you everything about the ceremony, but also about the stores open on this holiday.
[Mis à jour le 10 juillet 2023 à 16h57] It is a must on July 14: the great military parade will be held this Friday July 14, 2023 in the morning, on the Champs-Élysées, in Paris. It is he who traditionally begins the festivities of this national holiday. On the theme of “moral forces”, the military ceremony will pay tribute this year to the 15 countries that have helped France during a decade of military engagement in the Sahel: Americans, Canadians and Europeans…
Thousands of women and men will parade on the asphalt of the Champs-Elysées to the Place de la Concorde, while planes and helicopters will parade above the most beautiful avenue in the world. In the evening, many July 14 fireworks will close the festivities, including that of the Champ-de-Mars, fired at the foot of the Eiffel Tower. Discover in this special page history and practical information on this holiday…
The July 14 parade welcomes dand 10 a.m. to noon, from Place de l’Etoile to Place de la Concorde, soldiers, planes, helicopters, vehicles and horses of the Republican Guard.
- 10:00 a.m. : arrival of the President of the French Republic Emmanuel Macron on the avenue de Friedland.
- 10:15 a.m. : Honors paid to the President on the Place de la Concorde.
- 10:20 a.m. : opening animation by the Indian armed forces, in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, guest.
- 10:35 a.m. : air parade with several foreign planes (Indian Rafale, British Typhoon, Belgian F-16…) after the traditional passage of the Patrouille de France which celebrates its 70th anniversary!
- 10:40 a.m. : parade of troops on foot, a total of 6,000 soldiers, including the parade of students from partner African military high schools (Benin, Congo-Brazzaville, Gabon, Guinea, Madagascar, Ivory Coast, Senegal) alongside the residents of French military schools.
- 11:30 a.m. : Parade of 20 helicopters from La Défense.
- 11:35 a.m. : parade of motorized troops, in total, 200 vehicles including motorcycles. Parade of Caesar guns and AMX10-RC armored vehicles, of the type delivered to Ukraine, including the first parade of Serval light armored vehicles.
- 11:45 a.m.: parade of mounted troops, a total of 200 horsemen of the Republican Guard.
- 11:50 a.m. : closing event at place de la Concorde by young reservists from universal national service (SNU) and civic service: celebration of the spirit of the Resistance by commemorating 1943, the year the French Resistance medal was created, the creation of the National Council of the Resistance, the death of Resistance hero Jean Moulin and the birth of the “Chant des partisans”.
- 12 p.m. : departure of the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron.
After July 14, 1880, the military parade became an institution. On July 14, 1919, Marshals Foch, Joffre and Pétain paraded on horseback down the Champs-Elysées – even passing under theTriumphal arch – to celebrate the victory in the First World War acquired a few months earlier. It is at this time that the traditional parade of July 14 takes up residence on the most famous avenue in Paris. After an eclipse during the Second World War, the July 14 parade takes on its present appearance with the proliferation of tanks and planes. Some Presidents of the Republic, however, bring short-lived innovations.
During his mandate, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing moved the parade to other streets of Paris, such as the Cours de Vincennes, the Military School or even between Bastille and République in Bastille. In 1982, François Mitterrand postponed the parade until nightfall. The ceremony is perfectly oiled. Rehearsals for the parade generally take place on July 12 at dawn, two days before the key date. It opens with the passage of planes and helicopters. In all, around 4,000 soldiers parade down the Champs-Elysées at a rate of 120 steps per minute. Students from prestigious schools like Saint-Cyr come in full uniform. The march is traditionally closed by units of the Foreign Legion, famous for their voluminous beards and slower pace.
For nearly a century, the commemoration of July 14 was abandoned. It reappeared in 1880, under the Third Republic. The regime, to consolidate itself, seeks to build a new national imagination, around republican symbols. This is how the Marseillaise becomes the official anthem and July 14 a national holiday. But the proposal, which emanates from the deputy of the Seine Benjamin Raspail, is not unanimously welcomed by the Assembly. Some deputies question the violence of July 14, 1789. And it is finally around July 14, 1790 that the consensus is made!
That year, the monument surmounted by the statue in the Place de la République was also inaugurated, and concerts and fireworks were given everywhere. “The July column” which overlooks the Place de la Bastille, does not refer to July 14, 1789. It bears the name of the victims of the revolutionary days of July 1830, the “Trois glorious”.
July 14, 1789 is on everyone’s mind when we think of the National Day. That summer, a great agitation reigned in Paris. Faced with popular discontent, the king called together the States General, an assembly of representatives of the nobility, the clergy and the third estate. The latter demanded a profound reform of the institutions and, on July 9, proclaimed themselves the Constituent National Assembly. The initiative worried the king who secretly brought Swiss and German regiments near Versailles. Word soon spread that royal troops were preparing to enter Paris to arrest the deputies. On July 12, a speaker harangues the crowd whom he calls to react: it is Camille Desmoulins, mounted on a barrel, who announces a “Saint Barthélemy des patriotes”.
On the morning of July 14, angry Parisians fetch weapons from the Invalides, then head to the old royal fortress of the Bastille, in search of gunpowder. After a day of bloody shooting, and thanks to the rallying of national guards, the Parisians seized it and began its demolition. In the end, they only release a few prisoners and thugs without scale. But this old medieval prison embodies the arbitrariness of the Old Regime. By knocking it down, the Parisians are bringing down a rampart of absolutism. And this day, which marks the beginning of the Revolution, will be remembered as a day of freedom.
But surprise: our national holiday does not directly commemorate July 14, 1789, even if this first revolutionary day has a symbolic significance. July 14 officially refers to another event, less known, although learned by all French students from an early age: the Fête de la Fédération, organized a year later, on July 14, 1790…
After the summer of 1789, throughout the French provinces, regional “federations” of national guards were created. A reaction to the weakening of central power. In order to control this spontaneous movement, the Paris Commune, under the impetus of Lafayette, decided to found a large national federation bringing together representatives of local federations and to bring them together in Paris on July 14. The ceremony is meant to celebrate the capture of the Bastillea year after this symbolic date, but also to bring a semblance of order and unity to a country in crisis.
On the appointed day, 14,000 federated soldiers arrived in Paris and marched under the banner of their department, from the Bastille to the Champ-de-Mars. On an esplanade set up for the occasion, a great mass is celebrated, following which King Louis XVI swears to maintain “the Constitution decided by the National Assembly”. The 400,000 Parisians present that day acclaim their sovereign: the monarchy is therefore not called into question. The aspiration to national unity triumphs and the ceremony turns into a great popular festival. But national reconciliation will be short-lived. Two years later, the king was arrested and sentenced to death.
A decree of July 6, 1880 establishes a military parade that we still know today. This event should then erase the memory of the military defeat suffered during the war of 1870, the loss of Alsace and part of Lorraine to the benefit of the German Empire, and strengthen the Republic which has not yet ten years. The first edition of the military parade took place at the Longchamp racecourse, where it would remain until 1914. The July 14 parade would then continue and become a staple of the national holiday.
But the law of 1880 also installs July 14 as a public holiday. The idea is then to give a day off to the French to participate in the commemorations, but also to listen to their president. From July 14, 1880, at 12:30 p.m., the cannons of Mont-Valérien thundered above the Seine before falling silent for a speech by the President of the Republic, Jules Grévy. Le Petit Journal raves about a “magnificent spectacle […] which the July sun illuminated with its most radiant light”, evoking “a living symbol of union between these two forces separated for too long, the army and the nation”. The popular newspaper continues: “To the deep emotion, inexpressible , which held out for twenty minutes, a hundred thousand panting chests, we can affirm that for this crowd which pressed around the massed regiments, the handing over of the flags took on its true meaning: the reconstitution of France, the reconstitution of its national army, finally asserting itself in the face of the country”.
Over the years, July 14 has seen many adventures, but also changes that have transformed it into a general or even global holiday, involving all French people in more festive and popular celebrations. In 1886, a woman, cantinière of the 131st infantry regiment, marched for the first time. In 1915, the military parade moved from the Champs-de-Mars to the Champs-Elysées and in 1919, the “parade of victory” brought together all the forces of the allied countries.
In 1936, the unions joined the party in their own way. After the military parade, a million people marched at the call of the trade unions. From 1939 to 1945, in occupied Paris, the day was not celebrated. On July 14, 1940, in London, General de Gaulle reiterates its calls for resistance. But in July 1945, we celebrate the Liberation everywhere in France. Every year since, July 14 is the occasion to shoot fireworks and organize popular balls… Throughout France, events are organized on July 14 or the evening before.
The origin of the July 14 balls, and in particular the famous firemen’s ball, is also uncertain. For many, this tradition dates back to the beginning of the 20th century, and was born from the frustration of firefighters at not being able to participate in this great celebration. Some were indeed responsible for parading with the military when others had to remain on alert to prevent incidents and fires, common, as we know, when fireworks are fired. During an undetermined July 14, firefighters would have invited passers-by to dance at the entrance to their barracks. Each year, this meeting has developed and installed until the friendly firefighters organize their own ball, July 13 or 14. For others, it is the date of July 14, 1937, which marks the beginning of the firefighters’ balls. In Paris, in Montmartre, a sergeant by the name of Cournet also decided one day to open the doors of his barracks, giving birth to a big party, reports Liberation, which investigated this tradition in 2014. This version of the story is notably taken up on the website of the Paris firefighters.