France held a scaled-down annual Bastille Day celebration on Tuesday, with none of the usual tanks and troops parading down Paris's Champs-Élysées avenue due to the COVID-19 pandemic still lingering in Europe. Instead, President Emmanuel Macron, standing in the back of a military jeep, reviewed ranks of socially-distanced troops in the Place de la Concorde square after a flypast by military aircraft.

Health workers who have been in the front lines of France's battle against the virus also joined troops on the square for the ceremony, garnering applause from attendees.

It is the first time since 1980 that the annual parade has not been held along the Champs-Élysées. The fireworks will go ahead this year, but the parkland around the tower will be closed to the public.

Bastille Day, or the French National Day, dates back to the 1789 revolution. On that day, citizens stormed the Bastille fortress, which was used to detain prisoners and had become a symbol of the harsh rule of the French monarchy.

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