Has been very different to previous years, but still a time to remember the fallen and the sacrifices they made for us
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Isnât it Wednesday?
Yes⊠but the UK likes to be different since they won the war single handedlyâŠ
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Sorry didnât mean that to sound at all âoffâ I just thought it was the 11th (and Iâm sure I have the day off - unless thatâs for something else?).
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The Uk do a lot on the nearest weekend, but donât make as much of the actual day
Ahhhh!
I think it is lovely that they do make a big thing of it with the poppies etc in the UK. All those brave soldiers / nurses etc deserve to be remembered. AND we need to remember not to allow scary politicians to get in (looking at you Mr T 
)!
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Ahhhh OK that explains it! France does love itâs public holidays 
yes, but if the actual PH falls on a weekend, there is no extra day off in lieuâŠ
True true
A different perspective hereâŠ
âItâs not âlest we forget,â itâs âlest we remember,ââ as Irwin says in Alan Bennettâs The History Boys. âThatâs what all this is about â the memorials, the Cenotaph, the two minutesâ silence. Because there is no better way of forgetting something than by commemorating it.â
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This thread was to Remember the sacrifices people made. Perhaps another thread would be better for political aspects of war
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short but poignant
The event is commemorated on 11/11 here in France. I asked the Maire here if it was going ahead as I like to place a British Legion wreath at the foot of the war memorial in this town as part of the civic contingent, alongside the others.
Unfortunately the confinement dictates that only six people can lawfully assemble at the ceremony this year, and I shanât be able to attend. There will be no public attendance the Maire regretted.
Last years I raised about 80 euros through the donations offered for poppies from my tray, but impossible to collect this year.
I hope nonetheless to lay a home-made wreath of poppies privately on the day, in hommage to those of the commune who died for la patrie during various global conflicts, and on behalf of Britishers here in our commune.
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I have been in France for 11/11 on a few occasions so I know it is very date specific
I am completely supportive of people who wish to wear, use, display, sell poppies as their own mark of respect. What I struggle with is forced poppy wearingâŠall the dancers on strictly had poppies somewhere on their person and they come from wide range of backgrounds, nationalities etc so for many this was probably meaningless. It degrades the symbol to me.
(Perhaps tuck a cornflour or two into your wreath Peter as a mark of anglo-french relations?)
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Gosh Edward - I donât know what you understood from the article. I took it to be precisely a plea for genuine remembrance of the sacrifices all people made. It is against the politicisation of remembrance!
The French tradition is always to celebrate/commemorate on the specific day whether that be 11 novembre, Toussaint, NoĂ«l, 8 mai etc and if those days happen to fall on a weekend then there is no extra dayâs holiday. There are an awful lot of them though, especially in May.
Izzy x
In my previous life I used to project manage multi-national projects. I could never understand why on earth the French were such a pain about getting their projects finished in May. Now I do!
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I always wear the bleuet, they are always of the stick-on variety and it isnât cornflower season in November, but the wreath is always dedicated to the dead of the commune and respectful of Franceâs loss more widely. Thanks for your contribution, Jane.
I had a friend who attended a centre de rĂ©Ă©ducation once and was unfortunate to be there for 3 weeks in May. There were 3 jours fĂ©riĂ©s during week days which meant that all the staff (apart from essential staff to cook & clean etc) were on holiday. The 3 week stay turned into just 12 days of activities and the days âoffâ felt very long indeed.
Izzy x
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