Marseille Bastille Day 2013

Bastille Day also happens to be the Bodybuilder's birthday, and last year, I didn't bake him anything for his birthday because I didn't have an oven.  This year, I do (woot woot)...so I spent a good part of Bastille Day baking cookies.  (We were spending the evening with all the summer interns, and he was leaving the next day for Rome, so I delayed the cake for his return when he won't have to share it with 20+ people).  Then, I headed out to my my front yard the Vieux Port to hang with the interns and friends until the fireworks started.  They'd all set up camp with chairs in just about the most prime spot possible, directly across from the golden temple Notre Dame de la Garde.  Here we are at dusk.

There was a major party going on at the apartment in the top left corner of the apartment building behind us.

Two of our guys decided they were going to try to crash it.  They went and buzzed every button until someone let them in the building, and then they went to the top floor, following the music, and knocked on the door.  I couldn't believe it!  They said the music turned off, but no one ever answered the door.  They imagined different people looking through the peephole asking, "Do you know those guys?  No...do you?"  Finally they just left and came back down.  But props to them for the effort!

And here we are once the sun had fully nestled under the covers for the night and the anticipation for the fireworks began.

The crowd was trying to sneak through some of the spaces between our chairs to stand in front of us at the barricade (so the crowd doesn't actually push someone into the port).  We strengthened our ramparts and pushed forward, putting chair to chair so that there was no room to break through.  We were so American in our bubble of private space.  No crowd shall crowd us!  The French stood behind grumbling a bit that we Americans had stolen such a prime spot, and on their holiday.  (Okay, I don't know that anyone actually said that...)

All the city lights went down and we knew the show was about to start.  But instead of fireworks, or even the national anthem (The Marsaillaise), some old French song from the 70's played while everyone just sort of stared around with a "where's the fireworks" look on their faces.  Then a rumble began.  And some really intense thumps with flashes of light from the spotlights as if Godzilla was marching himself right down the port.  And then...

All the music was from epic movie soundtracks, making you think that either Jesus was about to burst through all the clouds (we were all staring at the sky, after all), or that the end of the world had just begun in some format like Armageddon, Independence Day, World War Z, or etc.  Sometimes the explosion of fireworks was so much that you couldn't even hear the awesome music announcing the end of the world as we know it.

We were right next to the Pirate Ship (yes, there's a pirate ship in the Marseille Vieux Port.  Didn't you know that Johnny Depp lives in the south of France?)  Since the fireworks were the whole length of the port, some were shooting down by the fort (the entrance to the Med), and looked really cool behind the masts of the Johnny Depp's summer home) Pirate Ship.

The finale was awesome.  Oh man, I do love fireworks.  (Who doesn't?!)  And I do love Bastille Day--the best day of the year in France, because I'll tell you what.  The French know how to put on a firework show!

This didn't beat Bastille Day 2011, but really...what can?  Fireworks at the Eiffel Tower with a million people singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow is pretty hard to beat.  

But, so you can hear the epic music and imagine what Marseille under alien attack would look like, here's a little video for you:

And then I went home.  Here's what my front yard looked like a good hour and a half after the show ended:  still a billion people outside, many shooting off firecrackers.  Fun times.

So, if you ever come to France, try to come in July: Lavender, le Tour de France, and Bastille Day.  It can't be beat!