A historical parade in Paris in July 2014

 In this post I had intended to explain where I had seen the French flag shown in my last post.  However, on July 14th I was able to watch the parade down the Champs-Elysees in Paris, live, from my computer.  This was a historical parade and I took many pictures.  I will show these on this post.  Every year the parade has a different theme.  This year it was to commemorate and remember the soldiers and workers from all lands, who took part in the First World War, which started a hundred years ago this month.  I watched this program on the large screen of my desktop computer.

 For the first time there were many foreign soldiers holding their country's flag and taking part in the French national holiday.  About all the countries, 80 of them, which took part in WW1 were invited by France, and I believe 79 came (China sent their regrets.)

To refresh memories - on June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand (1863-1914,) heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne and his wife, Duchess of Hohenberg, were shot dead while riding in a motorcade in Sarajevo.  This assassination led Europe then the world to the First World War.  Below are newspaper articles and postcards on this terrible event.  (Click on collage twice to enlarge.)

Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on 28 July 1914.  Germany declared war on Russia on August 1, invaded Luxembourg on August 2 and declared war on France on August 3, 1914.  On August 4, 1914 the United Kingdom declared war on Germany and so on.  The war ended on November 11, 1918 at 11:00 am.  The total number of casualties is still being debated; so far it comes to 37,466,904 - which include killed, wounded, prisoners and missing.  The USA suffered 116,516 killed (323,018 casualties.)  France suffered almost 1,400,000 killed (total casualties 6,180,800) and some are still found nowadays.  I read in a French newspaper that on June 1, 2014, two young men found the remains of five WW1 French soldiers in a forest near Luneville, Lorraine, France.  There were still pieces of their military uniforms, a watch, and two wallets at the scene.  Below are vintage postcards of World War 1 (WW1) - in France they call it the 14-18 war (la guerre 14-18.)

This 14 July 2014 parade started at 9:00 am from the Arc de Triomphe in Paris with the president of France driving down the boulevard des Champs-Elysees to the Place de la Concorde while all the participating regiments were standing in attention.  (My photos are blurry because it is difficult to take pictures from a moving video.)  You can see some of the foreign troops in the collage below.

Once the French President reached the podium near the Place de la Concorde, greeted his guests and sad down that was the sign for the program to start.  A movie of vintage World War 1 pictures appeared then on large screens.

The parade started with a platoon of French soldiers dressed in the uniforms of the "poilus," the WW1 soldiers.  The word poilu means hairy but it was used, even before WW1, as in the meaning for "macho" for super masculine men and soldiers.  Below are old postcards and photographs of "Poilus" from WW1.

These two rows of Poilus, below, from the Great War were wearing period uniforms.  These uniforms were kept in a military museum and worn exceptionally for this parade.  They are wearing the original 1916 uniforms with blue trousers because, in 1914, the trousers were red and easily seen by the enemy so they were changed to the color blue.  These soldiers did not carry the standard equipment the Poilus had in 1914, which weighed up to 35 kilos (70 pounds.)

The group of Poilus was followed by the parade of nations who were invited to recall the sacrifice of soldiers from their countries.  Each group from these 79 countries consisted of three troops with one carrying their country's emblem or flag.  They came down in alphabetical order (French spelling, so the USA "Etats-Unis" came after Estonia) to avoid protocol difficulties.  It was not easy for me to remember the flag of each country apart from those well known.  Here is the list of the 80 countries who took part in World War 1, on either side and were invited:  South Africa Albania Algeria Armenia Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bangladesh Belarus Belgium Benin Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Burkina Faso Cambodia Canada China Cyprus Comoros Cote d'Ivoire Croatia Congo Denmark Djibouti Estonia USA Finland Gabon Georgia Germany Greece Guinea Hungary India Ireland Italy Japan Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Kosovo Laos Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Madagascar Mali Malta Mauritania Morocco Moldova Monaco Montenegro New Zealand Niger Norway Pakistan Uzbekistan Netherlands Poland Portugal Czech Republic Romania United Kingdom Russia Senegal Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Tajikistan Chad Thailand Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Ukraine Vanuatu Vietnam.

Each group from the invited countries stood on the Place de la Concorde while a French Army choir sang two WW1 popular songs, La Madelon and Le Chant du Depart (Song of Departure) then the national anthem, La Marseillaise.

The 14 July parade in Paris is usually the formal review of the military forces by the French President.  This year the parade included 3,700 men and women walking, 241 horses, 285 vehicles, 53 aircraft, 36 helicopters and 76 detection dogs.

There were so many regiments, military schools, squadrons, military fire brigades, guards on horses - it was difficult to figure out which ones they were as I was not watching a commercial video but a French government video without comments.  But this way, it felt like I was there rather than watching it from afar.

Some of the regiments wore uniforms that were created centuries ago.  For example the 3rd Infantry regiment's uniform was created in 1803.  The military fire brigade of Paris was created in 1811 by Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte after the Austrian Embassy, his father-in-law's country, burned down in Paris because the regular firemen could not cope.  It is now the largest military fire brigade in Europe with 1800 firemen and women.  My favorite regiment is the Foreign Legion (Legion Etrangere) created in 1831 and including at least 12 regiments.  They lost 6,000 men during WW1.  They are the last ones to come down the parade because they march at a very slow pace to the rhythm of their official march "Le Boudin" which I know well.

My grandfather had taken part in the war effort and knew all the military marches and their lyrics.  When I was a wee child and living with my grandparents in Provence my grand-dad would often sing those marches - sometimes to get me to sleep, so I remember them.  The march he liked the most was The Regiment of Sambre and Meuse (I mentioned it already in my post of July 13, 2010 - click here.) It is the march that Ohio State University adopted for their football team "Ohio Script."  I found a video of an old recording of this march with vintage postcards of the war of 14-18.




This 14th of July was also the 50th anniversary of the independence of 13 African francophone countries.  During the wars of 1914-18 and 1939-45 they were French colonies.  No heads of states of the 80 countries were invited as this was a "soldiers" commemoration.  The parade included a 1917 American ambulance and taxis from the Marne, which were requisitioned in September 1914 by General Gallieni to bring rapid reinforcements to the Marne battle theater.  Finally an artillery troop wearing original 1916 uniforms came in a cart pulling a famous 75 mm field gun, 1897 model.  This field gun was extremely accurate, quick firing and for its time was a technological success. It was used for 50 years between 1897 and 1945 and is regarded as the first modern artillery piece.

The program ended with 250 young people, 18 to 25 years old, from the 80 countries invited.  They danced with a dove in their hands to represent peace.  At the end of the dance they let the birds go as a symbol of peace.

Later on I watched, live, the  fireworks from the Eiffel Tower, but this will be in my next post.  More to come ...