Today is Armistice Day

And every village and city in France celebrates it with the exact same protocol at the exact same time -- 11 am on the 11th day of the 11th month.

Except my village! Antoinette and I arrived a few minutes before eleven and were the only people there. Another man showed up. We chatted and he left. The flags were out on the memorial. The flowers were out. Fed up with waiting, Antoinette pooped near it. Luckily I found a plastic bag to pick up her offering and throw it away. A CD player sat on the window sill waiting to play La Marseillaise.

We left at 11:35.

There are only five French combattants alive from World War I -- the war that Armistice Day first commemorated. There were five up until Thursday.

Click on this link if you'd like to listen to the stirring French national anthem, La Marseillaise.