By Minu Jain

Paris, July 14 (IANS): The sun broke through the clouds to shine brightly over the famed Parisian boulevard of Champs Elysses Tuesday as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh became the first foreign leader to be chief guest at France's national day parade.

India was the focus as France celebrated 220 years of being a republic - when the storming of the Bastille prison signalled the uprising of modern nation states around the world.

"It normally rains every July 14," said a local queuing up to watch the parade while another added that the sky had been overcast for the last week.

But there was not a cloud in the sky as French President Nicholas Sarkozy drove down from an open jeep from the Arc de Triomphe waving to the crowd lined up on either side of the road to begin the celebrations.

While the skies roared with jets trailing flumes of blue red and white - France's colours, the street below followed the same pattern. Only this time, it was the Indian contingent that led the march.

Beginning what the French called dismounted troops parade were the red turbaned men of the Maratha Light Infantry who began the march from the Arc de Triomphe to the Place de la Concorde, where Louis XVI was decapitated after the revolution.

Then came the Indian Navy in the snowwhite uniforms followed by the squad of the Indian Air Force in the familiar blue. The band of the Indian armed forces struck familiar tunes, ringing the sound of India far away as they marched towards the saluting dais where waited Sarkozy and Manmohan Singh -- who with this visit reaffirmed the warmth of the relationship between the two countries.

Last year Jan 26 Sarkozy was chief guest at India's Republic Day parade down Rajpath in New Delhi.

Like the Indian celebration, the French national day too was a display of the military might -- without the cultural component however.

Led by the 400-member Indian contingent, the dismounted section of the parade brought together units from all services of French armed forces as well as military academies, police and firemen academies and voluntary firemen -- all marching to bagpipes, drums and what have you.

After that came the motorised troops -- tanks and the much cheered Paris fire brigade, which is a military unit.

The parade had started with an intricate cavalry manouvre set to music, and then a flypast of many planes from different eras made in France. The planes included the Rafale that India is testing, the Mirage for which an upgrade is being negotiated and the Eurocopters and displays of midair refuelling.

And right from the start, the bonhomie between the heads of Indian and French governments was evident. As Sarkozy reached the special enclosure where Manmohan Singh awaited him, the French president opened his arms wide to greet his chief guest.

Behind Sarkozy and Manmohan Singh sat their spouses next to each other -- both Carla Bruni and Gursharan Kaur in white, Kaur with her trademark string of pearls around her throat.