Bastille Day Is Not Just For The French

The Americans have the Fourth of July, the French have Bastille Day. A little history lesson before I go on...Bastille Day (July 14) was the day that the people of France stormed the Bastille in Paris and took it under their control. It was a huge victory for a number of reasons making it their "Independence Day." Now, I could let me true cynic show and go on for an hour about how the days we celebrate (we as in France and America) for our Independence are not the actual days we should celebrate but instead I will spare you the rant and just talk about how insane of a time Bastille Day was this year. As I'm writing, I'll also chronicle events through pictures. So bare with me, there's a lot.

So, one of my roommate's friends was supposed to meet us. She was holding an umbrella and then an Irish guy gave her two more to hold up so everyone started giving us their umbrellas to hold in the air for him to find us. We were dying. He ended up not seeing the umbrellas and he never found us. It was still hilarious though.

First of all, it was my second official weekend in Paris and my roommate and I were getting over a bug. Hers different than mine but not the point. Anyway, Bastille Day was on a Saturday and we made it a point to rest up so we could have a ton of fun. We didn't get to celebrate our Fourth so this was kind of a double celebration for us.

The day started with buying a few bottles of wine and snacks. After we got ready, we were trying to figure out plans. Now, instead of sitting around and being losers we decided to start our very own 90s party. There were three of us at our apartment blasting 90s music to get ready to go out later. It was pretty epic if I may say so myself. Anyway, one of our friends ended up coming over and it was just the start of a pretty great night.

I took pictures of the Eiffel Tower throughout the sunset. It was so gorgeous and even though it wasted battery on my phone for the fireworks, I'm so glad that I did it.

We went to an apartment of other friends where a huge group of us got together to leave for the festivities. First, we went out to dinner and were the obnoxious Americans that make the French hate America. At first it was a little embarrassing but after a while it was like, whatever. I am and there's nothing I can do about it. Plus, I'm Italian and we aren't exactly known for being the silent type anywhere in the world. From there we went to the park where the Eiffel Tower is and just sat waiting for the sun to go down. They made me get rid of a bottle of wine at the checkpoint but somehow my friend was able to sneak her bottle in. Thank God it was only three Euros.

Anyway, the fireworks started and it was better than anything I've ever seen. I hate fireworks normally. The Fourth of July barely means anything to me considering I know the real history of our country. Fireworks are only annoying here in the states considering people use the whole month of July as an excuse to blow them off whenever they want. But sitting right in front of the center of the Eiffel Tower, the fireworks were pretty much magical. They were a half hour long which never happens here in America and they were nonstop instead of one firework at a time. Needless to say, it was a pretty great night.

A small portion of the pictures I took. Some were great, others not so much. But here is what I experienced during the fireworks. It was a disco theme so they were playing disco music and there were disco balls everywhere. It was pretty insane.

Here is a little video that I took during the fireworks. I was able to sneak in half a minute before my phone died.

My roommate accidentally made a video with her iPhone of Bastille Day with all the pictures she took. I was really debating posting this because I look pregnant from being sick that weekend but I just felt that I couldn't talk about Bastille Day without you guys seeing this video. Everything about it (besides me) is perfect. It really captures what a great time we had. And that just proves that Bastille Day is not just for the French!