This weekend took place the famous July 14 parade. The parade lasted 2 hours. This is the time it takes for 4298 units on foot descend 1.2 km from the avenue des Champs Élysées. They were accompanied by 196 vehicles, 270 riders of the Republican Guard, as well as 67 planes and 40 helicopters.
What does this military parade represent?
July 14 has become National Day in 1880. We do not officially know whether this date was chosen in reference to the storming of the Bastille in 1789 or rather in relation to July 14, 1790, the date of the Fête de la Fédération.
Initially, the parade took place at the Longchamp racecourse. At the end of the Great War, the parade began to take place on the Champs Élysées and to have an important place in the hearts of the French.
New technologies in the spotlight
Each year the program of this event is planned well in advance, a theme is chosen and will be the common thread of the ceremony. This year is innovation and technology that have been in the spotlight. The most advanced military innovations were presented to highlight the French army of tomorrow.
We had the chance to discover many technologies such as Flyboard by Francky Zapata, a platform powered by air jet reactors that allow a man to fly up 190 km/h.
We also had the presentation of several drones and robots, for example the firefighter robot named Colossus who recently participated in put out the fire in Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris.
European cooperation
The 10 countries of the IEI (the European Intervention Initiative) had the honor of participating in this parade. Among them we find the 3rd Infantry Regiment (Spain), the Franco-German Brigade, but also units of Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Netherlands, Portugal and United Kingdom.
The IEI is a cooperation between several European countries created in 2017 which aims to set up cooperation in crisis management. Inviting all IEI member countries makes sense since it is a proposal by Emmanuel Macron to create a common intervention force.
A tribute to the wounded
The final animation was a tribute to the wounded of the French army, and a support for people who accompany them from the injury to the resumption of a sporting activity such as the National Institute of Invalides. The ceremony ended on La Marseillaise, with a French flag held out by the young people of the Universal National Service and you Civic service in order to demonstrate the commitment of young people to the wounded in the army.
the full summary July 14 parade celebrated in 2019: