Macron leads nation in Remembrance
President lays wreath at Tomb of Unknown Soldier, while Prime Minister Edouard Philippe attends ceremony at clearing where the Armistice was signed 99 years ago
President Emmanuel Macron has led the country in remembrance for the first time, 99 years after the Armistice was signed.
Early on Saturday, November 11, Mr Macron visited the former home of former French leader Georges Clemenceau, who became President of the Council in November 1917 at the age of 76, and is now often referred to as "Père la victoire".
The property on rue Benjamin Franklin in the 16th arrondissement, where Clemenceau lived for 35 years, is now a museum dedicated to the politician who is respected today for his wartime efforts. Mr Macron inaugurated a new gallery at the museum.
He then laid a wreath at the base of the statue of the wartime leader, before travelling up the Champs-Élysées to the place de l'Etoile to review the troops and lay a wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier alongside former President Francois Hollande - at the same time as similar ceremonies brought towns, cities and villages to a temporary halt across the country.
After attending the ceremony in a rain-sodden Paris, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe was later due to attend a ceremony at the historic clearing in Rethondes, in the forêt de Compiègne, where the Armistice was signed in 1918.
Interior Minister Gerard Collomb paid tribute to the soldiers at the barracks of the Republican Guard in Nanterre, in the Hauts-de-Seine.
On Friday, Mr Macron and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier inaugurated the memorial at Hartmannswillerkopf, in the Haut-Rhin on the Franco-German border, where up to 30,000 soldiers died in a year-long battle for a strategic location.
