15th October, 2006

FREE FOR ALL

I definitely have to get out more often! I just didn’t know what I’d been missing. The arrival of Fr. Francis should leave me with a little more freedom, and I decided to take advantage of it one evening during the week. Nothing major, mind you – not off doing a tour of the casinos and night-clubs, or anything like that! Just a simple little trip to the top of the street. I have often heard them from the distance in the past, but I decided it was time I went and got ‘close up and personal’ and attended one of the wreath-laying ceremonies at the Arc.

I don’t know whether I just happened to pick the right day, or whether it’s the same every day, but was I in for a treat! I got there in good time, while they were still assembling on the pavement at the top of the Champs Elysées. Every shape and colour of banner you could possibly imagine was in evidence. I gathered that at least some of them had been involved in Korea, as among the few bits I could read were ‘Chipyong-ni’ ‘Twin Tunnels’ and ‘Hongchon’ which you will no doubt recognise as battles in the Korean War in the early 1950’s. (Looked it up on the Internet when I got home!) One banner proclaimed that the group around it were members of the “Association National des Anciens Combattants”, which I thought was sweet – these weren’t retired combatants, just elderly!

And were they elderly! It almost made me feel young again – such was the age range. I said a quiet prayer that some of them would make it the hundred metres to the Arc. Their task wasn’t made any easier by the weight of medals they were carrying – some of them were practically bullet-proof, they had so many medals on their chests. And not a miraculous medal in sight!

I decided to head out to the Arc itself, as I could see there were already people assembled there. I was sorry I hadn’t my camera, because there, lined up as a guard of honour were about ten men, for all the world dressed like Carmelite priests. They had long white/cream hooded cloaks, with long black scapulars. They wore caps similar to what the Foreign Legion wear, and were all carrying rifles with fixed bayonets! It was one of the few times I’ve really regretted not having sufficient knowledge of French, because I would really have loved to find out who or what they were. I still can’t imagine any kind of situation where they could possibly go in to battle dressed as they were!

Eventually the band struck up – no, not “Onward Christian Soldiers”. I couldn’t see what was going on around the eternal flame, but it didn’t matter, as I enjoyed almost half an hour of really pleasant entertainment from the thirty-piece brass band. I don’t think I would have enjoyed myself as much if I had gone to the cinema for the afternoon, or even seen England get beaten by Croatia! (Only joking!) And the whole thing was for free!!