This archive report was first published on 25 August 2019.
Seventy-five years after the Allied forces liberated Paris from Nazi occupation, the city marked the anniversary with a Freedom Parade and a new museum dedicated to the city's liberation.
On Sunday, a column of military vehicles entered the city from the south, using the same route taken by the first Allied division, led by French General Philippe Leclerc, in August 1944.
Residents and business owners along the route decorated their balconies and shopfronts with French flags to recreate the scenes of rejoicing that their arrival triggered.
Some participants in the parade also sported 1940s garb, with women wearing high-waisted skirts and men wearing trousers with braces and berets.
"People were acting like crazy... There was an incredible atmosphere," said Rene Gonin, a 99-year-old retired mason, recalling the long wait for the Allied forces to arrive and the ensuing euphoria when they rolled in.
August 25, 1944, marked the surrender of German forces, but the week leading up to it was marked by bloody street clashes between the Resistance and German troops, resulting in the deaths of nearly 1,000 Resistance members, 130 Allied troops, and around 600 civilians.
