🇫🇷 Happy Bastille Day! 🇫🇷

Celebrating beautiful France today! 🇫🇷 I’ve compiled a few festive photos to commemorate my love for not just Paris, but all the other beautiful cities, villages, and countryside throughout France. ❤️💙

In France, we’re busy with the Tour de France 🚴🏽🚵🏽, a military parade, flyovers ✈️, and of course an impressive fireworks show at the Eiffel Tower and elsewhere throughout the country. 🎇

A high school exchange, a semester abroad, two homestays in different cities, multiple road trips through multiples regions, and years in Paris, and I have yet to tire of this beautiful country. I’m so thankful for all the friendships I’ve made here and all the wonderful experiences I’ve had and those that are yet to come.

And a few I took in Kansas City for a 14 Juillet photo shoot! 📸

For more France photos, follow me on Instagram: @fallingoffbicycles

Waterlogue Wednesdays: Bastille Day 2016

Celebrating my second home since 2003!

Beautiful view from the Panthéon

Charming window scene in Nice, France

Fun in the Tuileries

I started this year’s Bastille Day with excitement and in a celebratory mood. I’ve only been in France a couple of times on Bastille Day, but I always celebrate wherever I am in the world.

By afternoon, though, excitement and celebration had turned to tragedy with the breaking news of a mad man plowing through a crowd in Nice. I began seeing photos of Nice everywhere on social media… in the way those of us who have visited think of it: charming, welcoming, and beautiful. I ended up posting the carnival ride shot in the Tuileries on Instagram because I love the joy and carefree feeling it evokes, even in times of great sadness. 🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷

Image taken by me, processed in Waterlogue

Thankful Thursdays – La France

 

In thinking about what I feel most thankful for this week during this week of celebration and cycling, it seems only fitting to continue with the red balloon theme (see yesterday’s red balloons). Red, white, and blue for an American is usually symbolic for his or her own country, but for me they are the colors of all three of “my” countries, so I often find myself drawn to the combination of the colors. Since first going to France in 1999, my love for the culture and the country has grown exponentially, and I continue to be drawn to it, intrigued by it, frustrated by it, and madly in love with it. Every time I see another part of France, and I find myself in complete awe of how this (smallish) country can have so much beauty in it. I have heard this come up in French class and even in other European countries over the years – France really does have it all, from beaches, to mountains, to rolling hills, beautiful architecture, and a fascinating history to accompany it all. I can’t wait to explore more of it in just a few weeks.

In case you missed it, here is my France bucket list (to be updated/revised soon).

Happy Bastille Day!

Les Amis,

Today I wish you a wonderful Bastille Day, un Joyeux Fête Nationale du 14 Juillet!

I pay tribute often to my first adopted home, so I’ll just say one more time how much I love France, its culture, its beauty, and how welcome I have always felt there. The connection I have with it feels almost other-worldly; it’s inexplicable and delicate. I feel at home when I am there.

Vive la France!

Drapeau français sur la Seine

Bastille Day Fireworks

Cheers to France!

If you’d like to see what the rest of us saw from the Champs de Mars and around, please click the link for the full fireworks show.

Feu d’artifice 2013 – intégralité par mairiedeparis

What to do on Bastille Day in Paris

Looking for activities to do this 14 juillet? Timeout.fr has a few suggestions, as does Que faire à Paris.