The downside of being a lifeboatman...
We had to assemble, alongside other 'instances officielles', to listen to execrable renderings of the 'Marseillaise', the 'Chant du départ' and the '2ème Division Blindée' delivered by the Harmonie-Fanfare of the City of Antibes and the cathedral choir (each competing to be more out-of-tune and off-the-beat than the other), interspersed with crude reworkings of history in the official speeches. Basically, mon général won the war single-handed, and France was awash with 'honneur'. The enemy had been 'hacked to bits'. Gruesome stuff, even if fiction. I wriggled a bit hearing it...
The only decent speech was the one given by the mayor, who celebrated the fact that Germans and French had subsequently been peaceful, good neighbours for over sixty years, and hinted, at some cost to his popularity amongst the képi brigade, that perhaps France owed its liberation (not victory) to the sacrifice of many young Americans' lives.
Our place in the ranks was next to the Police Municipale, which shows, eloquently, where we stand in the pecking order...
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