Monday 11 November 2013

Richelieu Remembers

After a service in the church of Notre Dame de l'Assomption, a procession made its way to the Place Louis XIII, the site of Richelieu's memorial to the dead of the two World Wars.


Old and young alike came together in remembrance of the fallen.

The wreath was laid by les Jeunes Sapeurs Pompiers..

The role call of names of the dead came as a stark reminder of the sheer numbers killed from such a small town. Brief speeches were made..

Medals pinned...

and the children sang le Marseillaise...

The solemnity of the occasion was intermittently relieved by the playing of taped music, not always at the right time....It fell to the gentleman at the rear to repeat "arrete! arrete!" on more than one occasion....

which did not go unnoticed.....

Then the flags lowered and a minutes silence fell before the procession back to the Mairie

We remarked, on leaving, how wonderful it was to see so many young people present - not just the singers, but children and teenagers there for the ceremony....lest they forget.

2 comments:

Susan said...

That's a good turnout. Preuilly involves the children too, and gives them a meal afterwards, while the adults have apéro in the salle des fetes.

Colin and Elizabeth said...

Susan, I suspect that is what happened here, too, but we left at this point as people were going into the Mairie.