Bastille Day march-past to close Trump's Paris visit

[webfact]

Bastille Day march-past to close Trump's Paris visit

 

U.S. troops, with soldiers wearing WWI helmets, walk on the Champs Elysees during a rehearsal of the traditional Bastille Day military parade in Paris, France, July 10, 2017. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol

 

PARIS (Reuters) - President Donald Trump will watch American and French soldiers march together through Paris on Friday in a double celebration marking 100 years since the United States entered World War One and France's annual Bastille Day holiday.

 

The occasion, also featuring a bi-national fly-past of fighter jets symbolising present day military cooperation in the Middle East and elsewhere, follows a day of talks with French President Emmanuel Macron, a first ladies' tour of Paris, and dinner for the foursome at a restaurant in the Eiffel Tower.

 

It brings to an end a visit Macron needs as a boost to France's standing on the world stage - one which could also help a U.S. leader left short of international friends by his stances on free trade and climate change.

 

Trump, also dogged at home by an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, appeared on Thursday to leave open the door for more talks on the Paris accord which he pulled the United States out of earlier this year.

 

For France, this year's Bastille Day has an additional poignancy as the first anniversary of one of the deadliest Islamist militant attacks of the past few years.

 

After the parade, his first as President, Macron will head for the Mediterranean city of Nice, where he will join a commemoration for the 86 people who died when a Tunisian man drove a truck at a crowd on the waterfront a year ago.

 

(Reporting by Andrew Callus)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-07-14

[Opl]

The US Air Force acrobatic patrol and two American fighter planes F-22 opened the air show parade alongside the Patrouille de France, applauded by Donald Trump.

This year US troops participated, marking 100 years since US forces entered World War One.

Edited July 14, 2017 by Opl

[Enoon]

 

And just over 240 years since:

 

1777 June 13 – American Revolution: The Marquis de Lafayette lands near Georgetown, South Carolina, to help the Continental Congress train its army.

 

No country did more to enable the independence and, by extension, the rise to "Greatness" of the US than France.

 

France was midwife at the birth of the USA.

 

 

 

 

[Opl]

 

AT LAFAYETTE'S TOMB - JULY 4, 1917

LAFAYETTE -- WE ARE HERE !

Captain Charles E. Stanton, GHQ
Speech manuscript

" ... The fact cannot be forgotten that your nation was our friend when America was struggling for existence, when a handful of brave and patriotic people were determined to uphold the rights their Creator gave them -- that France in the person of Lafayette came to our aid in words and deed."

http://www.worldwar1.com/dbc/ow_3.htm

 

Edited July 14, 2017 by Opl