Will sites (museums, etc...) be open tomorrow for Bastille Day? (In Paris now)
 

Hi everyone,

DH and I have been having a great vacation in London and now Paris. We'll be here till Monday, and I know tomorrow is Bastille Day. What should we expect? Will all of the main sites (museums, monuments, etc...) be open as usual? We do plan on watching the fireworks at night at the Eiffel Tower as our hotel is literally a 2 minute walk to the Tower. I know to expect big crowds, etc...(Although I'm not sure anything could rival the crowds in London last week for the Tour de France :) ) Anything else I should be aware of tomorrow for 14 juillet? Thanks!

Some sites will be closed, but strangely enough, the big department stores will be open tomorrow because of the summer sales.

There is a concert on the Champ de Mars at 7 pm before the fireworks, so there will be more people earlier than usual. President Sarkozy is planning to attend. Also, after all of this cool rain for weeks, the temperature tomorrow will be in excess of 30°C (they say...).

If you have never seen the 14th of July fireworks in Paris before, you should know that the program is very sophisticated and is a multimedia affair. This year's theme is the cinema, and the fireworks will have six different chapters:

6 séquences, illustrant un Paris qui rêve son cinéma, rythmeront ce feu d’artifice :

- Paris « poésie » (Les Lumières de la Ville, Amélie Poulain…)
- Paris « action » (Il était une fois dans l’Ouest, James Bond…)
- Paris « dramatique » (Dancer in the Dark…)
- Paris “amour” (In the Mood for Love…)
- Paris « grands spectacles » (Star Wars…)
- Paris « musical » (Moulin Rouge, Mary Poppins…)

Thanks for all the great info., kerouac! I have been to Paris a couple of times before (although this is a first visit for my husband) but never in the summer or on Bastille Day! I'm excited for it.

Also -- do you know what time the fireworks at the Tower begin? They sound amazing!

Official starting time is 22:30 but since the sky is expected to be clear, it won't start before 22:45.

The grand finale is expected to be one of the more impressive ones of recent years, as they will shoot 1200 rockets in the last 90 seconds.

The whole show lasts 31 minutes.

Everything won't be open as usual because it's a holiday, but actually, a lot of the museums are open this year on July 14th, more than usual. The Paris Tourist Office website has a complete list of the ones open as well as other info. www.parisinfo.com

Thank you both for the great info.! Looks like the Louvre is free tomorrow, so we'll be headed there :)