The anniversaries of the end of both WW1 and WW2 are national holidays in France. The one on May 8 is called "Victoire 1945" but today's event is a bit more muted, simply called "Armistice 1918". With 1,4 million French military deaths, I guess the end of WW1 was more a relief than a victory. The ceremonies for each are similar, but the Armistice always seems a lot more sombre, perhaps because of the weather (although, as you can see, today was beautiful here).
At this point in the ceremony the president of the Veterans' Association was reading the names of those who died this year, "Mort pour La France", fortunately only 2, who died serving in Mali against Islamist insurgents.
