Firefighters' Ball

Yes. You heard me.  Fire. Fighters. Ball. 

Every year, the day before Bastille Day, all the firefighters in Paris (i.e. the most beautiful men in Paris) throw big parties at their fire stations to raise money.  Because they’re so generous. 

I have known about this for over a year and have been counting down the days until July 13^th.  Okay, I pretty much moved to Paris for the Firefighters Ball.  We’ve already discussed my obsession. 

Please, try to shield your eyes from being overwhelmed by handsome-life-saving-uniform-central:

Help! My cat's in a tree!

I swear one of these guys LEAPED up from the floor onto the counter in a single bound.  Then he saved a grandma, washed a car, put out a fire, and was back just in time to dance to an 80's song with his fire fighting buddies.    

Even now, I'm speechless.

My friends and I just walked around giggling all night, exclaiming with glee about how happy we were, and how this was the best idea ever. In the history of Paris.  Ever.

We went to a station on the Canal St. Martin, so there was a boat, too!

And a billion people.  Let's just say, it’s on my calendar for next year--Foremost and primarily for the importance of the fundraiser, quality time with friends, getting to be on a boat, my undying support for the unknown fundraising cause, and certainly not for any less noble or generally superficial reasons.

One of my favorite days

Let's set the time machine back to July 14th.

July 14th = Bastille Day = France’s Independence Day > My 4th of July

(That means "greater than" my 4th of July, not "arrow" my 4th of July.  It's an equation.  With two equal signs.  It's possible, you probably just didn't go into high enough level math.)

I'm smart.

What I'm saying is: Bastille Day had much more to offer than my sad fruit on the 4^th of July.  Let's do some more math.

[Hanging out at the Eiffel tower + Barefoot in the grass all day + (Picnic x 12 hours) + Friends + Concert + Wine + BBQ] x [(Fireworks + Awesome) / Eiffel]^10 = !

Those of us who were off work had the duty of arriving early, camping out, and securing a good spot in the park for the Fat Tire crew.  Several of us got there around 1pm, prepared for a glorious 12-hour day.

We brought rope & rigged up our own little makeshift fence, saving ourselves a nice big square of grass in the back.  Our own Fat Tire play pen area.  As empty as it was at 2pm...

 By sunset, we’d be elbow to elbow with the rest of Paris. 

Surprisingly…it worked.  People respected the fence.  Look, you can still see it there. 

We had TEXAS BBQ delivered!

I'm sorry, is this real??

IS IT??

The fireworks were outstanding

I cried.