The highly noticed quacks of the July 14 parade

More than 4,000 men and women descended the Champs-Elysées on Saturday during the traditional military parade on July 14. But what we will remember from a morning – a priori very millimeter – are two small hiccups, two unexpected events very noticeable.

As when two bikers of the gendarmerie have crashed, at low speed, and fell . Just outside the official gallery. The two gendarmes were executing figures mixing motorcycles, horses and soldiers on foot and quickly got up before evacuating the premises, under the eye of President Emmanuel Macron who gave them a smile … sorry.

Another hitch, the one here, even more visual: one of the nine Alphajets of the Patrouille de France has released a red smoke, not blue as expected, forming a red-blue-white-red trail. And giving the impression that the French flag thus drawn in the sky had …

Flag red-blue-white-red

Asked about France 2 after the parade, the lieutenant-colonel Maud Grolier confided that it was "a small mistake". "The plane carrying this red smoke instead of the blue smoke was the substitute. Since he was supposed to be able to replace any airplane, he was loaded with several colors. "It can be an error occurred before takeoff, when loading, or that of the driver pressing the wrong button. Exceptionally, three war wounded from special forces had boarded the Alphajet.

# 14July The overflight of the Patrouille de France is at the heart of the interrogations. It is indeed a mistake that we deplore greatly and of which we apologize.
But we form the wish that tomorrow, the blue is perfectly at the rendezvous! pic.twitter.com/fePgVT9Ls8

– Air Force (@Armee_de_lair) July 14, 2018

Guests of honor, Japan and Singapore took part in the exercises. Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong traveled to France as one of the main partners of the Air Force. For twenty years, Singaporean fighter pilots have been trained in the Gironde in particular.

Absent because of the floods that hit Japan last week and caused at least 200 deaths, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was to him, represented by his Minister of Foreign Affairs. The Japanese State celebrated with France the 160th anniversary of the opening of diplomatic relations between the two countries.