Coronavirus: in France, a July 14th like no other

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The National Day ceremony in France will be upset this year by the coronavirus crisis. It will only last an hour and a quarter. 

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On the Place de la Concorde in Paris, construction of the official gallery has started. It is from there that the President of the Republic and personalities will attend the ceremony of July 14. Because it is indeed a simple ceremony that it will be this year, and not the traditional parade which usually commemorates the taking of the Bastille in 1789. In three weeks, no soldier will descend to the Champs-Elysée . There will also be no motorbike or armored vehicle, nor mass audience on the sidewalks. Only planes and helicopters will fly over the famous avenue.

The celebration will be limited to the 8.5 hectares of the Concorde. The largest square in Paris will only be able to accommodate 5,000 people, including 2,000 soldiers, much less than usual. And these will only work around the obelisk. This ceremony is also more modest with 60 riders, instead of 200, and only about fifty planes.

The logo of this July 14th also testifies to the particularity in this year 2020 by displaying the head of Marianne symbol of the Republic, but also the cross of Lorraine of General de Gaulle to recall the 80th anniversary of his call of June 18 . The Patrouille de France planes, which will make two passages for the first time this year, will release a plume of tri-color smoke with a lot of white, in homage to the white coats who worked against the Covid-19.

However, no civilian medical personnel will be present. But a tribute will be paid to the soldiers of Operation Resilience, who notably built a field hospital in Mulhouse and contributed to medical evacuations.

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