I break my fortnight-long silence (for which I apologise) because of today's date and its commemoration in Meudon. The Armistice which ended the First World War has been remembered first with a Mass in Meudon's parish church of Saint-Martin (St Martin of Tours, whose feast-day is also on the eleventh of November), and then with a parade from the hôtel de ville to the cemetery to the south of town.
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| The congregation outside Saint-Martin |
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| Having set off from the town hall down the hill and on the left, the parade turns into the rue de la République. |
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| The parade approaches the cemetery. |
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| The parade enters the cemetery. |
All of this was done with calm and unaffected dignity. A similar impression was given by the Tricolore flags fixed to the cab of every bus:
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| The Tricolore (just above the driver's cab). |
The sobering thought has not escaped me that those of my age a century ago were sent to France not to enrich their lives, studying the luminous subtlety of man's art and being, but to have their lives ruined or ended in the calamity of industrialised warfare: requiescant in pace; qu'ils reposent en paix.
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