The Town Square Named in Memory of
the Cease-Fire Ending the Algerian War
“Just before the performance, we went back to the van to get warmer clothes, and it was then that I saw something that really struck me. Right next to the parking lot, just opposite the front entrance of the town hall, was a war memorial.
Nothing strange about that, given the wars France has fought. You see memorials to the vast numbers of young men lost in WWI, the WWII resistance fighters, and Holocaust victims everywhere throughout the country.
This memorial was different, however. It was dedicated to French soldiers killed in the Algerian War (or Revolution, if you happen to be Algerian), which ended in 1962, and it was cleaned and polished as if it had just been erected the day before.”