PARIS — Fighter jets roared over Paris on Sunday as the once a year 14 july celebrations coincided with the coming of the Olympic flame right here 12 days earlier than the beginning of the Video games.This 12 months’s parade seemed other and was once noticeably much less militaristic than in earlier years. Athletes and Olympic volunteers had been invited to take part along infantrymen, medics and law enforcement officials.The Position de l. a. Concorde, the place the 14 july procession historically ends, has been closed in fresh weeks for the development of brief Olympic stadiums. In consequence, the parade needed to be moved to the Road Foch, one of the crucial shorter and not more well known roads that encompass the Arc de Triomphe.Whilst the festivities normally draw tens of 1000’s of other people and can also be simply accessed, government restricted the collection of spectators this 12 months to six,200, who — amid area constraints and safety considerations — had been required to enroll upfront. Arrangements for the Olympics have strained police sources in France, which additionally restricted the collection of regulation enforcement officials marching in Sunday’s parade.Organizers maintained the normal air display. Jets sprayed blue, white and crimson smoke — the colours of the French flag — into the clouded sky above Paris.The show of tanks and planes is normally the center-piece of the once a year parade, which on Sunday additionally marked the eightieth anniversary of the rustic’s liberation from the Nazis. However the megastar of this 12 months’s festivities was once the Olympic flame. Driving a horse, Col. Thibaut Vallette, an equestrian gold medalist on the 2016 Olympic Video games, carried the torch down the road.After the parade ended, the flame persisted its adventure thru central Paris, the place tickets weren’t important to look at the festivities. Marie Niro, 27, noticed it cross close to the Nationwide Meeting, the decrease area of Parliament. “It’s a second that we percentage, a second that unites us,” she stated.Armored cars on show for 14 july had been located only a few ft from the brief Olympic venue that has been constructed at the Position des Invalides; at a close-by recruiting tournament for the army, younger Parisians mingled with vacationers.Blending France’s army parade with the coming of the Olympic flame was once “abnormal,” Niro stated.“However we maintain our traditions,” she stated.The Olympic torch will trip across the capital area and surrounding spaces over the approaching days earlier than making its as far back as town middle on July 26, the day of the Opening Ceremonies at the Seine.Sunday is the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille castle in Paris on July 14, 1789, which marked the start of the French Revolution that toppled the monarchy. The instance is well known with occasions throughout France every 12 months, and the Paris army parade and fireworks on the Eiffel Tower are considered because the highlights of the day.Sunday’s ceremonies had been attended by way of President Emmanuel Macron, who was once accompanied by way of contributors of his cupboard, together with Top Minister Gabriel Attal.Just a week in the past, it gave the impression conceivable that Macron may well be pressured to percentage energy with a far-right top minister. However legislative elections in France final Sunday resulted as a substitute in political gridlock, without a birthday party or alliance having received an outright majority within the Nationwide Meeting.Attal, who presented to step down Monday within the wake of the election, was once requested by way of Macron to stick on for “the steadiness of the rustic.”Macron now faces the chance of a closely decreased mandate, however has sought to painting himself as going about trade as same old. Final week, he attended the NATO summit in Washington.Safety stays a paramount worry for the organizers of this 12 months’s Olympic Video games. The Israel-Gaza battle has brought on bomb scares, a upward push in antisemitic incidents and a renewed concern of radicalization right here. Tensions with Russia over its battle in Ukraine — and the comparable bans at the Russian and Belarusian athlete delegations — have increased the chance of cyberattacks, French officers stated.Inner Minister Gérald Darmanin stated Saturday that 3,570 other people were excluded from attending the Olympics, together with “dozens of radical folks with regards to Islamist, ultra-left and ultra-right circles.”French government stated previous this 12 months that they had been aiming to have screened over 1 million other people by the point the Video games start, together with coaches, athletes, volunteers and contributors in occasions akin to Sunday’s army parade. Up to now, 770,000 other people were screened, Darmanin stated Saturday.Annabelle Timsit contributed to this file.