November 11 is Armistice Day in France. How do Parisians celebrate?
 

We will be in Paris on 11/11 and are wondering how it will affect our stay. The only thing I have found out is that Sainte-Chapelle and the Arc de Triomphe will be closed. Will there be parades or fireworks? Will museums and monuments be closed? Should we stock up on food?

Flash,<BR>We were in Paris last year on Armistice Day. There is a military parade that starts at the Arc de Triomphe, but seems like a typical Parisian day otherwise.

They don't &quot;celebrate.&quot; They buy flowers for the dead and visit their loved ones in the cemeteries. And there is a parade. It doesn't interfere a whole lot with normal commerce.

St Cirq beat me to it. The 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month is NOT a CELEBRATION anywhere in Europe. It is a somber observance honoring the Armistice (originally for WWI but eventually for WWII too.) In many places there are nation-wide two minutes of silence at 11AM when NOTHING moves - including airline takeoffs, etc.<BR><BR>It is not an excuse for &quot;Veterans' Day&quot; sales like in much of the States.

They kneel facing the US and give thanks.<BR>

No, they don't. They remember their countless dead. They don't thank the americans for anything. Why ruin a perfectly reasonable thread you idiot?

How do you guys celebrate Sept 11th? Fireworks and parades?

November 11 is a public holiday in France which means many shops and restaurants may be closed, particularly the smaller independent establishments. November 1 (All Saints Day) is also a holiday.

Is everything closed on November 1st?

&quot; They don't &quot;celebrate.&quot; They buy flowers for the dead and visit their loved ones in the cemeteries.&quot;<BR><BR>Seems like there's something we can learn there. I could never understand why we can't have one hour, much less one day the whole year to remember what those guys, and women, did for us in the war, the sacrifices that were made.

In the UK there is a two minute silence at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.<BR>A ceremony is held on the following Sunday at the Cenotaph.

Sorry, I should have said that the ceremony at the Cenotaph is on the nearest Sunday. This year it's on the 10th.

I was in Paris on November 11th, 2000. I did not notice many closures, it seemed like a normal day.

I would expect Anti American activities this year also.

Bottom line - are most shops and restaurants in Paris closed or not on the 11th?

There are no &quot;celebration&quot;. It's a holyday, so a lot of people don't care, and consider it an extra vacation day.<BR><BR>From an official point of view, and for people who care, it's a day of rememberance and a sad day. There are military parades, indeed, in most large towns, ending in front of the local momunment to the victims of war. In little village (though it's more rarely done), people gather around the monument, and the list of all people from the village killed during the wars is read aloud in pretty much every little village, you'll see such a moinument with the names engraved on it, and comparing the size of the village and the number of names is generally rather impressive.<BR><BR>Don't expectany fireworks, etc...there will benone. Some businesses will be closed.<BR><BR><BR>As for people buying flowers and visiting the cemetaries, the poster is mistaken. This happens on the &quot;Toussaint&quot; (All saints day), the 1st of November. Anectodically, the flowers are pretty much always chrysanthemiums,and this very beautiful flowers are impossible to find at any other period of the year, since they're so much associated with the deads and cemetaries here, that nobody would ever buy them for any other purpose.

The don't &quot;celebrate.&quot; They roll over and invite Germans in and let them do whatever they want. Then, when it's all over, they act nice to the British and Americans. Very fitting.

What I would like to know is why the Monument to the Deported is NEVER open. Do they always keep this closed and if so why?

Some of you psuedointellectual nitwits racing to correct Flash should go look up &quot;celebrate&quot; in the dictionary. You have no idea how foolish you look. All you did was prove how limited your knowledge of word usage actually is.

The memorial to the deported is open every day, I think -- several hours in the morning and then it opens again after lunch for the afternoon. There are bars over the entrance to one corridor which are part of the architectural design, if that's what you may be referring to. It is symbolic, meant to symbolize imprisonment and impossibility of escape.