French President Emmanuel Macron is today set to lead Armistice Day commemorations at Place Clemenceau in Paris.
The ceremony marks 102 years since the Armistice that ended World War I.
While France usually observes the public holiday with a parade in Paris as well as several other events around the country, this year will be different as the nation is under a national lockdown.
Macron will still lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier under the Arc de Triomphe, as is customary, but only “a very limited number of civil and military authorities” will be with him and the traditional parade along the Champs Elysée is cancelled.
Citizens will be able to watch the ceremony on TV.
A tribute will also take place today remembering a boy hailed as the country’s youngest World War II hero who died when he was just six years old.
Marcel Pinte, known as “Quinquin”, carried messages under his shirt to leaders of the resistance against Nazi occupation.
His name is set to be inscribed on the war memorial in Aixe-sur-Vienne just west of Limoges in central France.
Armistice Day on November 11 marks the moment guns fell silent and World War I ended but it is now also used as a day to remember the deceased from all wars.
