Monday, May 7, 2012

A new French President



 Yesterday Luke randomly decided to take a walk with me because we hadn't been outside all day. We walked on a public walkway above the city and found it strange that there were almost no people there. Then we heard the honking of cars and noticed people waving flags out their windows and shouting with joy. There was a craziness of honking, shouting and parading in the streets and we walked towards the Bastille. In the Bastille there were thousands of people gathered in a gigantic crowd and the streets leading up to the Bastille were all closed down. We assumed that the presidential candidate, Sarkozy won the election but in fact it was a man named Francois Hollande. The crowd was dense as we pushed and shoved our way towards the front and we saw a huge screen which was showing the news live as well as the newly elected president in the back seat of a shiny black car with heavy security surrounding him, driving towards the Bastille.

  The crowd went wild (even more so than before) when he showed up to give his speech. The speech went well. It was very patriotic and he spoke of a huge change in France. He is the first elected Socialist president here in Paris after 20 years, so many people are very happy about the change. It was interesting to be a part of the victory announcement and it was also the first time that I went to one. There were a lot of people climbing the place de la Bastille monument and waving flags in celebration. In the crowd a middle aged French woman came up to me and asked if I was from London. I said that I was American and she gave me a huge kiss on the cheek and said excitedly "Ah, se bon!" and I told her that I'm an exchange student living here. As we were maneuvering through the crowd almost everyone was smoking. After a short time I became light headed and dizzy because of the body heat in the crowd combined with all the smoke.
  After the president gave his speech there were live bands playing back to back. Around midnight Luke and I headed back home. It was a very eventful, memorable day for us both to be able to see the victory announcement of the newly elected president.

Photos taken by my brother, Luke Ekblad

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