Where to celebrate Bastille Day in France

Bastille Day (aka Le Quatorze Juillet) is the biggest national holiday in France. Every year, parades, fireworks displays and festivals fill the streets of cities across the country, to mark the storming of the Bastille prison in 1789 (a turning point in the French Revolution).

And we’ve found the five French cities in which to celebrate, according to global travellers.

Paris

Unsurprisingly, the French capital is where you’ll find the most pomp and ceremony on Bastille Day. Every year there’s a huge military parade down the Champs Élysées with a flyover, floats and Tricolours draped through the London plane trees lining the Avenue. There’s also a spectacular fireworks show at the Eiffel Tower, preceded by free open-air concerts and Parisians picnicking on the Champ de Mars (the surrounding park). You can also take a fireworks cruise down the Seine, attend a Bal des Pompiers (a Firemen’s Ball, a century-old tradition organized by fire stations throughout Paris), or head to Versaille to check out its grand musical fountain show. Stay at the self-catering Appartement Champs-Elysées, just 200 metres from the military parade.

Lyon

Lyon also celebrates Bastille Day in a big way, with military parades, fireworks and festivals. There are also ‘bals’ where you can dance to brass bands and accordion players on the banks of the city’s River Saône. And the day is rounded off with a fireworks extravaganza set off from the top of the forested Fourvière hill, with its Basilica of Notre-Dame as the sublime backdrop. Bastille Day also coincides with Lyon’s summer festival, Tout L’Monde Dehors (Everybody Outside), offering a jam-packed programme of open-air music, theatre, dance and cinema. Stay in a pretty, 19th-century building at Une nuit au second, an elegant guesthouse right in the centre of Lyon.

Marseille

Marseille’s Vieux-Port provides an unforgettable setting (and electrifying atmosphere) for Bastille Day fireworks. Revellers fill the streets lined by stately 19th-century architecture, gathering in café terraces to watch pyrotechnics synchronised to patriotic music light up the sky above the marina’s old stone walls. There’s also a parade featuring traditional folk costumes, military events and live music on the Cours d’Estienne d’Orves. Les Appartements du Vieux Port is Marseille’s highest-rated accommodation, with a sunny balcony and light-filled interior located right in the heart of the Bastille Day action.

Bordeaux

The main Bastille Day event in Bordeaux actually happens on the 13th July, prior to all the other festivities. It’s a picnic held at Parc Simone Signoret, a lively gathering of locals and tourists that gets the city in a celebratory spirit ahead of the military parade down the Esplanade des Quinconces on the 14th. Other highlights include live orchestras, balls and fireworks. Join in the public singalongs of popular French songs and then migrate with the masses to the banks of the Garonne River to watch the colourful pyrotechnic display dazzle the sky above Bordeaux’s captivating Louis XV-style boulevards. The beautiful Casa Blanca B&B is set just 600 metres from the Esplanade des Quinconces.

Strasbourg

On the western banks of the Rhine River, right next to the border with Germany, Strasbourg is one of France’s prettiest cities. With influences from both countries, its medieval half-timbered houses, cobbled streets and old stone bridges dotted with flower pots are even more lovely when draped with decorations for Bastille Day. Every year, a parade takes place in La Petite France – the city’s historic quarter – culminating in a fireworks display illuminating the canals and the Gothic Cathédrale Notre-Dame. Check into Cour du Corbeau, a luxury hotel set in a 14th-century building in central Strasbourg.