REPORTAGE
"It's a different format but not at a discount." Coronavirus health crisis obliges, the ceremonies for D-Day Saturday were minimalist. In Vierville-sur-Mer, in Calvados, in front of Omaha Beach, the 76th anniversary of the "Longest Day" was worthily celebrated in the early afternoon and with great emotion. "It is a very beautiful ceremony", estimated at the microphone of Europe 1 Jean-Marc Le Franc, the president of the landing committee
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"It was more intimate, it was incredible"
To avoid any risk of contamination, the brass band was recorded and there was no audience or veterans. The meeting certainly did not have the usual brilliance but the passage of the patrol of France gave back a certain relief. For Jamie McCourt, the US ambassador to France, the emotion remained intact. "It was more intimate, it was incredible," he rejoiced at the microphone of Europe 1. "Whenever I come, it's always amazing."
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Do not "expose the veterans"
The appreciation of the sanitary rules of the forty or so officials, including the ten ambassadors, gathered in a small square facing the sea, was also astonishing. None wore masks. Fortunately, ultimately, the veterans were not invited.
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"We always have a lot of emotions to meet the veterans. This year, I believe that the reason made that we preferred not to expose them", reacted Geneviève Darrieussecq, the Secretary of State to the Minister for the Armed Forces. "I also give them an appointment next year," she added. Hoping, in fact, that the war against the virus will also be won by then.