Paris will pay tribute to soldiers from home and abroad who fell fighting for the freedom of France in the First World War with an exhibition of 100 photos on the Champs Elysées.
Merci! 100 photos pour un Centenaire, opening on 1st August 2014, is presented by the French Centenary organisation Mission Centenaire 14-18.
As the principal battlefield of the Great War, it says France has both the honour and responsibility of welcoming descendants of all the combatants 100 years later,
Troops came from sub-Saharan Africa, America, Australia, Britain, Canada, China, India, New Zealand, Poland, Russia and South Africa to fight alongside their French allies.
The exhibition has been devised and produced by the journalist Jean-Claude Narcy, with the assistance of historian Jean-Pierre Verney.
Mr Narcy, who chairs Mission Centenaire 14-18’s committee of sponsors, says he wants to express France’s gratitude to those who sometimes had to cross the world’s oceans and continents to fight on French soil.
He also pays tribute to the women who supported the war effort as nurses, munitions workers, or by bringing in the harvest.
The experiences of those who fought, died or suffered during ‘more than four long years’ should never fade from our memories, Mr Narcy declares.
‘Merci! 100 photos pour un Centenaire’ runs until September 30th 2014.
Information and images supplied by Mission Centenaire 14-18
Posted by: Peter Alhadeff, Centenary News