00:00Well, France, along with many other countries around the world today, is marking Armistice Day, or Remembrance Day, the end of World War I, and a French public holiday.
00:08Every November 11th, there is a major ceremony commemorating the day, and this year is also marking the 100-year anniversary of the French cornflower, or bleu, France's version of the poppy.
00:19Antonia Kerrigan is following the ceremonies for us from the Champs-Elysées, and she told us more.
00:23The proceedings began at Les Invalides, which is a former military hospital, now war museum in central Paris, where the president unveiled a plaque in honor of those who lost their lives in World War II, specifically in the border regions of Alsace and Moselle.
00:44And the commemoration was specifically for the so-called malgré nous, that's in English, that's in spite of ourselves or against our will.
00:55Those are the soldiers from these border regions that were forcibly conscripted into the German army in World War II.
01:01So that initial ceremony was slightly apart from the others, in that it focused on a different conflict and a different group, and a group often stigmatized in French history.
01:10Proceedings then moved over to the Champs-Elysées, at the foot of which extends a statue of Georges Clemenceau, France's leader during World War I,
01:19who of course represented France in that train carriage in which the armistice was signed that cold winter morning.
01:27After that, he made his way up the Champs-Elysées in the presidential motorcade, escorted by Republican guards on horseback.
01:35On arriving at the monument behind me, at the Arc de Triomphe, he was met by three generals, with whom he climbed into an armoured car,
01:44and they made a lap of the monument inspecting the troops.
01:49There was then a moment of silence at the tomb of the unknown soldier that is under the Arc de Triomphe.
01:55Flowers were laid, and there was the symbolic reigniting of the perpetual flame.
02:00This tomb honours the soldiers who lost their lives in World War I, but also the widows and orphans that this war left behind.
02:09Since then, for the last few minutes, the president has been greeting representatives of veterans' support charities,
02:16remembrance groups, and descendants of soldiers from World War I at the foot of the Arc de Triomphe,
02:21as, of course, this World War I has now passed beyond the realm of living memory,
02:27and that memory is kept alive by these groups, by these descendants, by these people who have held this part of history dear.
02:35This has all been, of course, to music played by the band of the Republican Guard, who you may be able to hear in the background.
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