Emalisa Explores: Bastille Day in Lyon!!

So Bastille Day, also known as La Fete Nationale (in French), is the French National Day where the French celebrate the uprising against the monarchy in France towards the end of the French Revolution. It is greatly celebrated all over France. You could say that this is the French equivalent to the "4th of July" in the US. There are fireworks, many food trucks, concert trucks, and music blasting everywhere, along with people celebrating and getting drunk on the streets.

Myself and the other Northeastern students who chose to attend the Bastille Day celebrations were lucky enough to be able go on a boat cruise on the Saone river about an hour prior to the fireworks display. We were also lucky enough to stay on the boat to watch the fireworks! The streets were completely filled with locals, so it was very nice to be able to have comfortable "front row seats" to the fireworks which were set off from the Basilique Notre-Dame Fourviere.

It was actually a very interesting experience for me. In the beginning of the night, random pedestrians kept on setting off fire-crackers; I had assumed that this would be as much of a show as we would get, but when 10PM rolled around, the lights to the Basilique, the mini Eiffel Tower and the Palais de Justice Historique de Lyon were all switched off, and for a brief amount of minutes, all the lights to the houses and the foot bridges facing the Saone river were also switched off. At 10:35PM the fireworks began, and it was the most beautiful fireworks displayed I have ever witnessed in my life. It went on for about 25 minutes with a few second breaks in between where they would flash lights from the Basilique or send up smoke. It was breathtaking.

After the fireworks display, myself and some of the other students got some crepes and walked around a little bit before heading home, since it was a sunday night. The festivities did not end for the French until the wee hours of the morning!