French pride soars on Bastille Day

Nation & World News

The leaders of Syria and Israel, countries with a bitter enmity, as well as the Palestinian and Lebanese presidents together marked France's Bastille Day on Monday in a diplomatic coup for French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

July 14 brings the annual commemoration of the storming of the Paris Bastille in 1789, a citizens' victory at the outset of the French Revolution.

Republican Guard soldiers surround the French president during Monday's parade.

Spectators use periscopes to view the parade on the Champs Elysees.

Syrian President Bashar Assad, left, shares a word with Romanian counterpart Traian Basescu as Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, right, speaks with Polish President Lech Kaczinski, third right, on the viewing platform. It was a coup for Sarkozy to have the Syrian and Israeli leaders on the same stage.

The Bastille was a prison in Paris, which the people stormed and seized in 1789, starting the French Revolution that toppled King Louis XVI and the aristocracy. Above, soldiers march the parade route.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Chief of the Defense Staff General Jean-Louis Georgelin.

Soldiers from the fire brigade march during Bastille Day ceremonies in Paris.

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July 14 brings the annual commemoration of the storming of the Paris Bastille in 1789, a citizens' victory at the outset of the French Revolution.

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