November 11 is Armistice Day in France. How do Parisians celebrate?
#1
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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?
#4
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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 "Veterans' Day" sales like in much of the States.
#10
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" They don't "celebrate." They buy flowers for the dead and visit their loved ones in the cemeteries."<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.
#16
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There are no "celebration". 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 "Toussaint" (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.
#20
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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.
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kerouac
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Feb 25th, 2008 09:22 PM