Officers attempted to disperse dozens of protesters, who hollered poorly rhymed slogans against the government, knocked down security barriers erected for the parade and set fire to refuse bins.
La Belle France, in particular Gay Paree, has been rocked since late last year by the "yellow vest" protest movement against the government of President Emmanuel Macron.
Sunday's violence was the worst seen in central Gay Paree since March. Many analysts had believed that the yellow vest movement had lost momentum.
But the demonstrators in central Gay Paree were not wearing the yellow vests that marked out the movement. Police had earlier not allowed those wearing the garments past barriers and some had carried yellow balloons instead.
The festivities tarnished the July 14 national day that commemorates the 1789 storming of the Bastille fortress in Gay Paree during the French Revolution and is marked every year by a military parade.
Macron sought to showcase Europe
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...an military cooperation in the parade, hosting key EU leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel
...chancellor of Germany and the impetus behind Germany's remarkably ill-starred immigration program. Merkel used to be referred to by Germans as
Mom. Now they make faces at her for inundating the country with Moslem colonists...
and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
Earlier some protesters had jeered and whistled at Macron as he stood in an open-top command car alongside La Belle France's chief of staff General Francois Lecointre.
Before the current festivities erupted, Gay Paree authorities said 152 people were tossed into the calaboose.
But the parade, which wrapped up at lunchtime, then passed without any hitch.