Fireworks, warplanes and axes: How France celebrates Bastille Day

PARIS (AP) — Swooping warplanes, axe-carrying warriors, a drone light show over the Eiffel Tower and fireworks in nearly every French town — it must be Bastille Day.

France celebrated its biggest holiday Monday with 7,000 people marching, on horseback or riding armored vehicles along the cobblestones of the Champs-Elysees, the most iconic avenue in Paris. And there was also partying and pageantry around the country.

Parisians stormed the Bastille fortress and prison on July 14, 1789, a spark for the French Revolution that overthrew the monarchy. In the ensuing two centuries, France saw Napoleon’s empire rise and fall, more uprisings and two world wars before settling into today’s Fifth Republic, established in 1958.

Bastille Day has become a central moment for modern France, celebrating democratic freedoms and national pride, a mélange of revolutionary spirit and military prowess.

The Paris parade beneath the Arc de Triomphe so impressed visiting U.S. President Donald Trump in 2017 that it inspired him to stage his own parade this year.

The spectacle began on the ground, with French President Emmanuel Macron reviewing the troops and relighting the eternal flame beneath the Arc de Triomphe.

Each parade uniform has a touch of symbolism. The contingent from the French Foreign Legion was eye-catching, its bearded troops wearing leather aprons and carrying axes, a reference to their original role as route clearers for advancing armies.

Near the end of the parade, a Republican Guard officer fell from one of the 200 horses but the national gendarme service said the rider and horse were unhurt. Such incidents happen occasionally at the annual event.

The Paris event included flyovers by fighter jets, trailing red, white and blue smoke. Then the evening sees a drone light show and fireworks at the Eiffel Tower that has gotten more elaborate every year.

Every year, France hosts a special guest for Bastille Day, and this year it’s Indonesia, with President Prabowo Subianto representing the world’s largest Muslim country, which also a major Asian economic and military player.

Indonesian troops, including 200 traditional drummers, marched in Monday’s parade, and Indonesia is expected to confirm new purchases of Rafale fighter jets and other French military equipment during the visit. Prabowo, who was accused of rights abuses under Indonesia's prior dictatorship, will be treated to a special holiday dinner at the Elysée Palace.

“For us as Indonesian people, this is a very important and historic military and diplomatic collaboration,'' the commander of the Indonesian military delegation, Brig. Gen. Ferry Irawan, told The Associated Press.

Finnish troops serving in the U.N. force in Lebanon, and Belgian and Luxembourg troops serving in a NATO force in Romania also paraded through Paris, reflecting the increasingly international nature of the event.

Among those invited to watch will be Fousseynou Samba Cissé, a 39-year old Paris man who rescued two babies from a burning apartment earlier this month and received a last-minute invitation in a phone call from Macron himself.

‘’I wasn't expecting that call,'' he told online media Brut. ‘’I feel pride.''

Beyond the military spectacle in Paris are growing concerns about an uncertain world. On the eve Bastille Day, Macron announced 6.5 billion euros ($7.6 billion) in extra French military spending in the next two years because of new threats ranging from Russia to terrorism and online attacks. The French leader called for intensified efforts to protect Europe and support for Ukraine.

‘’Since 1945, our freedom has never been so threatened, and never so seriously,″ Macron said. ’’We are experiencing a return to the fact of a nuclear threat, and a proliferation of major conflicts.″

Security was exceptionally tight around Paris ahead of and during the parade.

It’s a period when France bestows special awards — including the most prestigious, the Legion of Honor — on notable people. This year's recipients include Gisèle Pelicot, who became a global hero to victims of sexual violence during a four-month trial in which her husband and dozens of men were convicted of sexually assaulting her while she was drugged unconscious.

Others earning the honor are Yvette Levy, a Holocaust survivor and French Resistance fighter, musician Pharrell Williams and designer for Louis Vuitton.

Bastille Day is also a time for family gatherings, firefighters' balls and rural festivals around France.

A horse slides on the pavement during the Bastille Day parade, Monday, July 14, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

French troops march on the Champs-Elysees avenue during the Bastille Day parade, Monday, July 14, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

Cadets from the military school Saint Cyr march during the Bastille Day parade, Monday, July 14, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

Indonisian army band members march march during the Bastille Day parade, Monday, July 14, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

Soldiers of the Foreign Legion march during the Bastille Day parade, Monday, July 14, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

Jets from the acrobatic Patrouille de France fly over the Champs-Elysees avenue during the Bastille Day parade, Monday, July 14, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

French and Finland's soldiers of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) stand during a rehearsal for the upcoming Bastille Day parade, Wednesday, July 9, 2025 on the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

French President Emmanuel Macron speaks to the army leaders flanked by Prime Minister Francois Bayrou, left, and Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu at the Hotel le Brienne, Sunday, July 13, 2025, ahead of the Bastille Day parade in Paris. (Ludovic Marin, Pool Photo via AP)

Foreign Legion soldiers arrive for a rehearsal for the upcoming Bastille Day parade, Wednesday, July 9, 2025 on the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

Indonesian troops march during a rehearsal for the upcoming Bastille Day parade, Wednesday, July 9, 2025 on the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

A Ukrainian drone strike killed one person and wounded three others in the Russian city of Voronezh, local officials said Sunday.

A young woman died overnight in a hospital intensive care unit after debris from a drone fell on a house during the attack on Saturday, regional Gov. Alexander Gusev said on Telegram.

Three other people were wounded and more than 10 apartment buildings, private houses and a high school were damaged, he said, adding that air defenses shot down 17 drones over Voronezh. The city is home to just over 1 million people and lies some 250 kilometers (155 miles) from the Ukrainian border.

The attack came the day after Russia bombarded Ukraine with hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles overnight into Friday, killing at least four people in the capital Kyiv, according to Ukrainian officials.

For only the second time in the nearly four-year war, Russia used a powerful new hypersonic missile that struck western Ukraine in a clear warning to Kyiv and NATO.

The intense barrage and the launch of the nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile followed reports of major progress in talks between Ukraine and its allies on how to defend the country from further aggression by Moscow if a U.S.-led peace deal is struck.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday in his nightly address that Ukrainian negotiators “continue to communicate with the American side.”

Chief negotiator Rustem Umerov was in contact with U.S. partners Saturday, he said.

Separately, Ukraine’s General Staff said Russia targeted Ukraine with 154 drones overnight into Sunday and 125 were shot down.

Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

This photo provided by the Ukrainian Security Service on Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, shows a fragment believed to be a part of a Russian Oreshnik intermediate range hypersonic ballistic missile that hit the Lviv region. (Ukrainian Security Service via AP)

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, second left, listens to British Defense Secretary John Healey during their meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk)