The Bastille Day Military Parade takes place on the morning of the 14th July each year in Paris, France.
The parade passes down the Champs-Elysees, from the Arc de Triomphe to the Place de la Concorde and is one of the oldest regular military parades in the world.
The parade also includes a large flypast of French as well as other nations aircraft, with the Patrouille de France leading the way in their Alpha Jets, trailing blue, white and red smoke.
This year the flypast consisted of over one hundred aircraft including about 39 helicopters.
Peter Busby attended this event and this is what he had to say:
The Bastille Day Flypast in Paris, on 14th July, was not to be missed, especially as this year's theme,
'European Defence Co-operation', published 114 fixed wing, and rotary types, including a couple of
RAF Chinooks, and a Typhoon, in the Flypast.
As I ascended the metro at Invalides, I was greeted by a French Army Puma SA-330B, hovering just
above me, camera out, my first photo, and blue sky too, what a good start!
The scheduled Fixed-wing Flypast commenced at 1035 (Rotary at 1125), with the Patrouille de France flying down the Champs-Elysees, from the Arc de Triomphe, to Invalides, my position, on the South side of the Seine, about half a mile East of Invalides, proved to be just right.
There were some very interesting types, including a French AWACS, Spanish, and RAF Typhoon, A330-243 MRTT Phenix, Fokker F100mod, Portuguese C295M, French, and German A400M, Fire Fighting Dash-8-402MR, RAF Chinook, and French Navy Lynx HAS2.
It was a great day out....and the TGV, got me home, just in time, to see the England CWC win too!
