National Day: A look back at the July 14, 2019 parade

This weekend took place the famous July 14th parade. The parade lasted 2 hours. This is the time needed for 4298 units on foot to walk down 1.2 km of the Champs-Élysées avenue. They were accompanied by 196 vehicles, 270 riders from the republican guard, as well as 67 planes and 40 helicopters.

Summary:

• What does this military parade represent?
• New technologies in the spotlight
• European cooperation
• A tribute to the wounded

July 14th became National Holiday in 1880. We do not officially know if 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 Festival of the Federation. 

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 hold an important place in the hearts of the French.

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, it is innovation and technology that have been honored. The most advanced military innovations have been presented in order to highlight the French army of tomorrow.

We had the chance to discover many technologies such as the Flyboard by Francky Zapata, a platform propelled by air jet reactors that allow a man to fly up to 190 km/h. 

We also had the presentation of several drones and robots, for example the firefighter robot named Colossus which recently participated in extinguishing the fire at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris.

The 10 countries of the EII (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 from Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, the Netherlands, Portugal and the United Kingdom.

The EII is a cooperation between several European countries created in 2017 whose objective is to establish cooperation in crisis management. Inviting all EII member countries is logical since it is a proposal by Emmanuel Macron to create a common intervention force.

The final animation was a tribute to the wounded of the French army, as well as support for the people who accompany them from injury to resuming sports activities like the National Institute of Invalids. The ceremony ended with La Marseillaise, with a French flag held by young people from the Universal National Service and Civic Service to demonstrate the commitment of young people to the wounded of the army.