Reviving a tradition that crises and wars had ruined, a procession of floats, a true flower parade, crossed Paris from the Place de la Bastille to the Esplanade des Invalides during the 1950s.

Starting just after 3pm during days in May, the route cut through the nerve centre of the city, starting with the “old boulevards”, Beaumarchais, Filles-du-Calvaire, Temple, whose merchants displayed an amusing competition of anomalies. After crossing the Concorde, it went up the Champs-Élysées to the statue of Clemenceau, passing between the Petit Palais and the Grand Palais, to finally arrive at the end of its journey, where the floats were exhibited until 7 p.m.

The procession evoked those flower-filled parades that, during Carnival season, bring joy to the towns of the French Riviera. It consisted of fourteen floats: the float of the florists of France, a veritable basket of seven thousand roses; the horticulture float; the hunting floats, on which red-clad huntsmen sounded their horns; the floats of the City of Paris; the Paris Fair; Les Halles, with its porters in their large hats; the floats of the merchants of the grand boulevards; the float of the old boulevards. Finally, the fairground workers, aboard which Esmeralda, queen and muse of the “traveling people,” embarked.

To herald the procession of flowers, songs, joy, picturesque attire, and symbols, the mounted band of the Republican Guard led the way. Behind them one hundred musicians of the 1st Colonial Infantry Regiment; the band of the 1st Train Squadron brought up the rear. The procession will included five hundred gymnasts from the gymnastics federations run by the Youth and Sports Department.