As Macron presides over military parade, nation hopes for World Cup victory on Sunday

France celebrated Bastille Day on Saturday with a colourful military parade in Paris – and hoped the party would continue the next day after the national football team play Croatia in the World Cup final.

Standing on a military vehicle flanked by motorcycle escorts and led by a cavalry procession, Macron rode down the Champs Elysées, Paris’s most famous boulevard, for his second 14 July parade, cheered by hundreds of spectators.

Bastille Day commemorates the storming in 1789 of a prison where political dissidents were locked up, a key event in the French Revolution.

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Macron this year invited the leaders of Japan and Singapore, nations with long-standing strategic partnership with France, to take part. Last year the US president Donald Trump was guest of honour.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A mistake occurred in the smoke colours produced by the Patrouille de France during the parade in Paris. Photograph: Etienne Laurent/EPA

Japanese’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who cancelled to deal with deadly floods at home, was represented by the foreign minister, Taro Kono.



In the two-hour parade, involving 4,200 soldiers, 220 vehicles and about 100 aircraft, Japanese and Singaporean soldiers took part as guests of honour.

There were two glitches, though: two motorcycles collided during a demonstration in front of guests, and an Alpha jet from the Air Force Patrouille de France acrobatic unit released the wrong colour for the French flag during a formation flight.

France has mobilised 110,000 security staff for the Bastille Day festivities and World Cup final. Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to take to the streets, from Paris to the smallest of villages, and the celebrations are likely to continue long into Sunday night if France lifts the World Cup for the second time.