PARIS\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Ukrainian fighter pilots and troops took pride of place in France\u2019s national Bastille Day celebrations Tuesday as a massive parade showcased support for Ukraine and symbolically flexed European military muscle.<\/p>\n
On his last Bastille Day as president, Emmanuel Macron hosted around 30 other leaders for an event that appeared aimed at showing both Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Trump that Europe is united and stepping up to defend itself.<\/p>\n
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was given an ovation from the assembled European leaders and his country\u2019s troops got the biggest cheers of the day from crowds on the tree-lined Champs-Elysees avenue. Zelensky and Macron shared repeated hugs at the end of the parade.<\/p>\n
France\u2019s biggest national holiday coincided with raging forest fires and a red-alert heat wave that forced the cancellation of traditional fireworks and firefighters\u2019 balls \u2014 and with a highly anticipated World Cup semifinal pitting the national soccer team against Spain.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what to know about Bastille Day this year.<\/p>\n
It commemorates the start of the French Revolution<\/p>\n
It\u2019s celebrated on July 14 because that\u2019s the day Parisians stormed the Bastille fortress and prison in 1789, helping spark the French Revolution that overthrew the monarchy and sent King Louis XVI and his queen, Marie Antoinette, to the guillotine.<\/p>\n
The Bastille Day holiday is central to the French calendar and national identity. Presidents use it to vaunt France\u2019s accomplishments, mayors across the country host village festivals and families gather for holiday picnics.<\/p>\n
The centerpiece is the Paris parade beneath the Napoleon-era Arc de Triomphe and along the Champs-Elysees, which inspired Trump to stage his own parade last year. <\/p>\n
A huge French tricolor flag hanging below the monumental arch rippled in the wind as a military band on horseback rode down the tree-lined avenue followed by Macron standing in an open military vehicle to kick off the parade.<\/p>\n
Spectators wore hats and brandished small fans to fend off the heat as a formation of air force planes roared overhead trailing red, white and blue smoke.<\/p>\n
Ukraine is a special guest<\/p>\n
Zelensky joined Macron along with some 30 other heads of state or government in the special viewing area for the parade.<\/p>\n
Ukrainian troops marched along the cobblestoned avenue, and Ukrainian co-pilots trained in France were on board two Mirage 2000B fighter jets alongside French air force pilots.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel very proud for the fact that they\u2019re here and for the fact that we\u2019re marching alongside of them and I think it as well will create better ties with them and NATO and to be a part of that history,\u201d 21-year-old U.K. soldier Lance Cpl. Patrick Risso told the Associated Press, speaking of the Ukrainian involvement.<\/p>\n
Troops from around Europe are marching<\/p>\n
On the ground, the parade opened with around 500 troops from the \u2033coalition of the willing\u2033 grouping of countries that have pledged to help with Ukraine\u2019s postwar security. Many served in North Atlantic Treaty Organization operations, and NATO\u2019s chief was also in attendance.<\/p>\n
Macron said Monday night that it\u2019s a \u2033great honor\u2033 to welcome to the parade \u2033all the partners in the coalition of the willing and our Ukrainian friends who will march with us and illustrate its strategic reawakening and our unity.\u2033<\/p>\n
The foreign fighters in combat fatigues and dress uniforms marched with their national flags, in a break with tradition. <\/p>\n
In the skies, aircraft from Germany, the United Kingdom, Poland, Denmark, Greece, Sweden, Norway, Spain and Italy took part.<\/p>\n
The parade set a record in terms of number of troops: The Paris military governor said 7,600 troops were marching this year, compared with 5,810 in 2025. Thousands of soldiers started taking up positions early Tuesday, many taking selfies as helicopters flew overhead.<\/p>\n
World Cup excitement coincides with the holiday<\/p>\n
As the parade wound down, France\u2019s attention turned to Tuesday\u2019s standoff against Spain in the soccer World Cup semifinal in Texas. As Macron greeted crowds on the Champs-Elysees, spectators chatted with him about France\u2019s chances of victory.<\/p>\n
The French tricolor is everywhere \u2014 in sidewalk cafes and bars, and the hundreds of fan zones set up in cities and small towns around France. They started filling up hours before the match.<\/p>\n
Bastille Day also coincides with the annual Tour de France cycling race, which adjusted the timing of Tuesday\u2019s stage to ensure that the finish line arrivals wouldn\u2019t compete for viewers with the parade.<\/p>\n
Heat complicates celebrations<\/p>\n
Forest fires are raging in the Fontainebleau forest south of Paris and in areas of southern France, as the country suffers through its third heat wave this year.<\/p>\n
As a result, authorities in some regions \u2014 including the French capital \u2014 banned fireworks and firefighters\u2019 balls customarily held around Bastille Day.<\/p>\n
The Eiffel Tower\u2019s fireworks and drone show was maintained, however, and held Monday night, including a drone formation shaped like the Statue of Liberty \u2014 a gift from France to the United States.<\/p>\n
Dam writes for the Associated Press. AP writers Sylvie Corbet and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PARIS\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Ukrainian fighter pilots and troops took pride of place in France\u2019s national Bastille Day celebrations Tuesday as a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51324,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[23819,43,33525,5,33526,561,33524,30,33529,722,718,230,33528,308,33527,3688],"class_list":["post-51323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-paris","tag-country","tag-crowd","tag-european-troop","tag-france","tag-last-bastille-day","tag-macron","tag-massive-parade","tag-paris","tag-paris-bastille-day-parade","tag-president","tag-show","tag-spain","tag-traditional-firework","tag-ukraine","tag-unity","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}