January 31, 2020 in London is Brexit Day.

• On the occasion of its 20th anniversary, "20 Minutes" shares with you the most striking memories of its journalists.

• Today, January 31, 2020, Brexit Day, which marked the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union.

2020, January 30.

At the Gare du Nord, check-in goes smoothly.

Usually, it is in the health section that I officiate.

Two weeks earlier, I wrote my first article devoted to this "mysterious pneumonia" from China, whose name everyone will quickly know and which will prevent me from writing about anything else for a long time.

But this is Brexit that I'm going to cover for

.

This morning, Paris is waking up, and tomorrow evening, London will fall asleep outside the European Union.

Waiting for the Brexit Party

Like all journalists who have come from all over the world for the same reasons as me, I will then be at the Brexit Party.

But first, head to the French Institute in London, to probe the moods of the city's Frenchies.

One of the threads of my trip to London will be to experience the event alongside expatriates, who are inevitably worried about their future across the Channel.

Friday 31, I wake up: it's Brexit day!

I go out to explore the capital with the strange feeling that tomorrow everything will be the same, but never the same again.

I walk past an official building topped with the flags of the UK, England (no, it's not the same) and the EU knowing that the third will soon no longer be floating in English skies.

On the newsstand, Brexit is making headlines.

And the witnesses are quick to give me their impressions in order to feed

this historic day that

transcribed minute by minute.

First there is Kirsten, the newsstand, who proudly shows me the anti-European badges hanging from her jacket.

Then, in Parliament Square, where pro and anti-Brexit are gathered, I meet Maxime, who came from Lille to preach for Frexit, and Lucy, a 20-year-old Londoner, who believes that Brexit will steal her future.

shared hangover

Because in London on this January 31, there are those who are celebrating, toasting the regained sovereignty of the United Kingdom and the others who, without alcohol, will share the same hangover as the first, but for others reasons.

I make a detour to the town hall, where worried Franco-Londonians have come to seek comfort and free legal advice, like Marie, a little lost in the steps to take to secure her place on this side of the Channel.

Change of atmosphere back in Parliament Square where the party is in full swing.

The Union Jack floats everywhere, it is raised as a standard and appears in technicolor on the outfits of Brexiters who come by the thousands, happy to send Europe flying.

At 11 p.m. (London time, midnight in Paris), it's official, the United Kingdom is no longer part of the EU.

London swings solo.

In a few hours, I will return to Paris.

Paris the French, Paris always European.

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