Our plan for July 14 in Paris was to join in as much of the celebrations as possible without the 3.7mile walk home after fireworks at the Eiffel Tower. We got up at a reasonable hour, packed a picnic and headed for the Champs-Élysées. We were forced to get of the Metro a couple of stops earlier than planned and then followed the crowd being ushered along by the Gendarmes. Eventually we found ourselves close to where the action would be, but unable to get a good view as the crowds were already 2 or 3 deep. I then spotted some excellent trees and tried to get AJ sat up on one of the branches so that he could get a good view. This was very quickly objected to by a Gendarme running towards us and "helping" him down. 
I then spotted another spot which although still behind other people, had the advantage it was on a slope and we were next to a road sign that we could lean against. The kids were complaining and there was still some time to go. Esmé lay down on the floor using our rucksack as a pillow much to the amusement of the vast assortment of nationalities surrounding us. Eventually the air show started and AJ loved watching the planes. The marching started and Patrick and I put the kids on our shoulders. I think Patrick could see something but I could see diddly squat, however the kids did seem to enjoy this bit. After a while they had had enough and asked to go. As our 
shoulders were really starting to complain by this point we decided they had a point. A little way along a back street there was a café showing the parade on big screens so we stopped there for a while before moving on. We were trying to get to the Louvre as we had read that all museums were free on 14th July but once we were parallel with Place de la Concorde we could go no further as the parade was using this as their escape route. We walked a little way up the road and stopped to admire the parade from a rather less busy viewpoint. After a while we were ushered back and all the vehicles in the parade passed right in front of us. AJ loved it!
While watching the last of the vehicles we met a lovely Australian couple and got chatting. When we told them the Louvre was free they wanted to come too so we showed them the way. The kids loved talking to them and enjoyed learning a bit about Australia before we said goodbye once inside the Louvre. I'm sure their experience of the Museum would be rather different from ours.
Although the plan wasn't to take Patrick and AJ to Arty places as they are generally not interested, the fact that we were close and it was free made us reconsider this. In the end AJ was particularly interested in seeing the Mona Lisa, even though it was tiny compared with other pictures in the gallery. He then wanted to see Greek and Roman stuff and I thought he'd enjoy the Egyptian artefacts so we did a whistle stop tour of these which felt rather like trying to navigate out of a maze. 
After the Louvre we headed back to rest and consider how we could see the fireworks. Our friends Paul and Carol were going out on their boat but we decided against this as we felt the river would be far too busy for the helm to enjoy the show. In the end we saw a couple who suggested just going to the river almost next to the lock, and as the kids seemed very tired we decided this was a good option. We went for a walk to Notre Dame first, where the kids played in the playground with some Americans.
We then enjoyed some street entertainment before heading to the riverbank to wait for the fireworks. By this time the kids were really tired and in the end we only watched part of the show. We really were too far away and although I was enjoying it I wasn't enjoying the kids being tetchy so we all came back to the boat.
The 15th July was designated a boat day where we caught up on washing, tidying and shopping. Not much exciting to say, just a picture of one of the many party boats that seem to come through the marina. A little like having an open top bus tour drive through your back garden. Nice to be in the centre of Paris but we'll be glad to be more rural in a few days.
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