Fires despite everything for the national holiday. Sometimes with the public like in Seine-Saint-Denis - with Clichy-sous-Bois, La Courneuve, Saint-Denis or Villetaneuse - or even at Levallois-Perret in Hauts-de-Seine or Pont-Sainte-Maxence in Oise. Sometimes without the slightest spectator, as in Paris at the foot of the Eiffel Tower. The Ile-de-France and Ile-de-France municipalities have taken different decisions, adapted to the challenge of the health context.
So this Monday, July 13 or Tuesday, July 14, it will be a question of being careful when settling on a green square or in a street when admiring the first rockets that will pierce the night.
Besides, why did you maintain this meeting when the Covid-19 is still in circulation and the rallies still present a risk? The perimeter around the Eiffel Tower (7th) is completely closed, from the Trocadéro to the nearby bridges, without forgetting the quays or the Champ-de-Mars. But how will the prefecture of police manage people who will still want to see the show in popular places such as Montparnasse (XIV-XV) or Belleville (XIX)?
Anti-terrorist measures
The same question arises for all the organizing cities. While we try to avoid regrouping, we authorize fires. A paradoxical situation. In Seine-Saint-Denis, if each mayor is responsible for compliance with health rules, these events will also be the subject of particularly tight "anti-battering devices", it is emphasized from the side of the prefecture of Bobigny.
Concrete slides, large stones, vehicles, and other obstacles will be placed to avoid the intrusion of a vehicle. The measures have been applied since the terrible attack in Nice in 2016 (86 people were killed by a truck on the Promenade des Anglais). The public authorities are particularly vigilant this year. The celebrations linked to July 14 will be the first occasion, post-Covid, of gatherings of a festive and "citizen" nature, around newly (re) elected mayors.
Paris, in collaboration with the police headquarters (PP), has decided to organize everything without the public, from the great free concert by Radio France to the fireworks. "The fire of July 14 will mark, as every year, a time of national unity and shared joy for all French people," does one explain to the Town Hall and to the PP. It will also be, in the eyes of the whole world, the symbol of the resilience of our capital and of our Nation and a tribute to all the everyday heroes who worked during the duration of the epidemic. "
"A broom of stars in the sky of Paris"
Christophe Berthonneau, director of the pyrotechnic show, has been working on this event since December with his team from Group F. “We are used to working on big events like the Olympic Games and in close collaboration with television. This year, with the Covid, we have to find a new way of living, he explains. So this show, we designed it so that the spectators in front of their television can relax, dance, have hope and even so that they rediscover the taste for traveling ”, attacks this passionate man with endless verve.
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Zaz, Dalida, the late Manu Dibango and Christophe, Grace Jones and even Edith Piaf will add a little lightness to this television meeting. “It will be a broom of stars in the sky of Paris, continues Christophe Berthonneau. What I would like is for people to party at home from 11 p.m. in front of their TV. Yes, with the Covid and sometimes reconfigurations like in Melbourne or in Spain, you have to be very careful but you must not stop smiling, dancing and living. More than twenty cameras and a helicopter will allow this fire to be seen from 11 p.m. on France television in its living room.
