BASTILLE DAY

My Bastille Day consisted of watching the military parade on TV while having tea. Pity, yes, but the fear of large crowds haunted me. It was perfect though because as my main interest was in the calvary, we knew the appropriate time to run downstairs and go around the block to where the calvary men were staging. So, I got to see them and all their beautiful horses in all their glory. At first, when we approached, the men were standing holding their mounts; then, the call to mount was sounded and everyone got back on, was ordered to unsheathe their swords and make the formation. The horses stood calm enough, but as soon as the Captain started to move his mount forward, there was a great scurrying of hooves on the cobbles, much rearing and clattering as the horses tried to gain their footing on the street. They assembled, and rode off to end the parade and escort the President to his garden party. (The calvary opens and closes the parade.) It was rather impressive.

We went back home, watched the final moments of the parade on the TV, and went to walk the dog and have a coffee. Coffee turned into lunch, and as we were near the Invalides, there were a lot of soldiers from various regiments milling about. It was interesting because Bruno knows a lot about military history, and so he was explaining to me the different uniforms, their uses and significances: how it came to be that some wore long tails of horsehair from their helmets (to protect the back from being slashed by an enemy sword), the evolution of having three buttons at the cuff of the sleeve (i forget that one), and of course the colorful manners in which a uniform signifies rank. After dinner, we went and watched the fireworks they shot from the Eiffel Tower. It was very beautiful.

MORE FROM DAN AND ERIN...

Here are some photos from the fancy camera!

DAN AND ERIN IN PARIS

I did not take a lot of photos, but here are a couple from my phone.  I left the photography to Dan's fancy camera and his less-developed Lareau shakes.  Here, Dan gets a little revenge of Kate from the last time they were in Paris and she refused him the nutella crepe.  And Noé has a cotton candy the size of his torso!  (This caused about an hour and a half of manic behaviour, followed by nearly instantaneous sleepiness at the dinner table- so much so that Marc and I were forced to take turns carrying him home...)  After picking Dan and Erin up from the train station, we dropped their luggage by their hotel and proceeded to the Eiffel Tower.  I had planned that we walk the Seine down to Notre Dame, to see everything that lies between, but it began to rain, and so we all huddled into a cab.  The kids were terribly behaved, so when we arrived at Notre Dame to meet Marc and Iris, I was very much relieved for a little back-up.  Marc did a great job of taking the reins from there, showing a few secret things around the cathedral, and finding a great place for dinner.  I was pretty exhausted, I must say, but it was so nice to be with family that I wasn't bothered.  I was sad that Dan and Erin didn't have more time, as the next day I began a two-week vacation, so it would have been excellent for showing Paris, but I hope that they had enough of a taste to want to help organize a Lareau family trip for next summer.  Dan, please send the pictures from your camera!  I'll post them here, and hopefully more people other than Kate can be jealous enough to take a flight...