Chasing the Parade

Today I decide to go running on a different route - from my apartment to the eiffel tower. It's a nice run, because it takes me through the Parc Monceau, past the Champs Elysees, along the Seine and finally to the Champs de Mars in front of the Tour. I plan to end my run at the Grand Palais and ride the metro home from the stop there. As I'm approaching the Invalides and Pont Alexandre III, I notice a crowd of people and a bunch of barriers. I also see gendarmes, or really intense policemen with body armor and lots of scary looking guns. I stop in front of the Invalides, trying to figure out what the commotion is all about. As I look, I see horses, and i don't just mean a few - I mean maybe a hundred or so of these animals - lined up in perfect formation. Riding them are men dressed in uniform. As they approach, I hear that they are playing some kind of song. I notice some unfamiliar looking flags next to french flags around them as well. What is going on? I am too shy with my french to ask anyone around me. But everyone has their camera out and is snapping photos, so it must be important. Suddenly three helicopters fly overhead and a series of important looking black cars roll past. One of the cars has the window down, and an older man is staring out at me and crowd. I at least figure out that some kind of political figure has just arrived, and this is his parade. But what country? I've never seen that flag before. I forget about the rest of my run (I was nearly done anyway) and decide to follow the parade. I hope I will get to see Sarcozy. I power walk behind the massive group of horses but due to street-crossing difficulties, I soon fall behind. I must look quite ridiculous, I think, speeding through Paris in my running clothes. I make it to the Place de Concorde and see the horses going towards the Asemblee Nationale. Or maybe it was another building. I'm not sure. But anyway, if you've ever been to the place de concorde, you'd know that with all the traffic it takes at least an hour to cross it. Unwillfully, I give in and jog back to the Grand Palais. But I'm going crazy for the rest of the day - what country was this? After an unnecessary amount of research, and by unnecessary I mean looking at every country's flag in this world, I find the answer. The flag I saw belongs to Iraq. Wow. I soon discover that the Iraqi president arrived in Paris today for a four day meeting with Sarcozy. I wonder if that old man that I saw was the president. I feel like I've just witnessed something important. Makes me feel kind of insignificant, too, though, for some reason, to see something like that happen in front of me. This is world politics that I'm talking about!

But honestly, all those horses! And so well trained, too! The funniest part about the parade were the little green cars that drove behind the horses so they could clean up the shit. And believe me, there was a lot of it.