Don’t Rain on My Parade
The 14th of July (which NOBODY in France calls “Bastille Day”, by the way) dawned bright, promising a hot day with sun shining benignly down on the amassed weaponry parading down the Champs-Elysées. Shorts, sunglasses, sunscreen and digital cameras seemed the essential equipment to enjoy the day.
How wrong we were. As we took up our position in the roof garden of an office building just a block back from the Arc de Triomphe (friends with high places, naturally), and while snipers from the Gendarmerie stared at us through binoculars, clouds started moving in from the east, looming darkly over the Eiffel Tower.
The storm held off long enough for us to watch the French Air Force roar down the length of the Voie Triomphale, from La Défense to the Louvre. It was an impressive sight.
New Zealand’s airforce consists of a handful of Vietnam-era helicopters, a few transport planes that occasionally drop boxes of aid to cyclone-stricken Pacific islands and a part-time brass band. France has, er, a few more planes than we do:
And then, as soon as the jets got out of the way, the heavens opened. Paris was hit by a month’s worth of rain in three hours. We unsuccessfully dodged the showers and – strangely – found ourselves in a bar in time for lunch. We were wet, but seemed to be doing something right.
L’Ecluse specialise in the wines of Bordeaux. We ignored the bottle of 1979 St Pétrus on their wine list at €1227 and opted for a €25 Château Margaux instead. After drying out over a few glasses and an “Assortiment de cochonnailles” (a plate containing variations on pig), I sensed that the rain was easing and that I should make a dash for the métro.
My expectation of improving weather proved of course to be hilariously and liquidly wrong. As I reached the bottom of Avenue Georges V, another torrential downpour hit. By the time I took this video of a Leclerc tank rumbling onto the Pont de l’Alma, I was soaked to the skin.
The rest of the day was spent drying off, wandering around the Marais in the newly resurgent sunshine, and then heading up the tower of the American Cathedral (yes, more friends with high places) for a few drinks and to watch the fireworks over Trocadéro at 11pm. But that is another episode…
Assortiment de cochonnailles
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Come now, Richard, I don’t think you’re being entirely fair to the RNZAF. You forgot the Orions, which are about the same age as the helicopters and transport planes. And there are two 757s for VIP transport – although I seem to remember they spent so much time sitting idle in Whenuapai that Auckland’s humidity started corroding the engines. And the Hercules do more than drop aid on cyclone-stricken islands. They have been occasionally known to get stuck in Darwin with broken windscreens or engines while trying to transport troops to Timor Leste. Well, the good news is they’ll be finally getting new helicopters soon.
Cool video, though I think France should’ve had a wee chat with China about the weather modification they apparently used in the run up to the National Day parade last year.
Didn’t really get that bit about “weather modification there”…
Chris is referring to the artificial techniques the Chinese government apparently used to change the weather during the Chinese National Day in 2009… I’m not sure what the technology is, but apparently it can guarantee sunny weather during politically important events.