One year before the Olympics, a carefree crowd of tourists and Parisians gathered on Friday evening to admire the July 14 fireworks from the Eiffel Tower, far from the urban violence of the beginning of the summer.
According to the town hall of Paris, like last year, some 70,000 people had taken place in the secure area of the Champ-de-Mars to attend the classical concert and especially the pyrotechnic show that followed, from 11:10 p.m.
In Paris and in the neighboring departments, around 10,000 police and gendarmes are on the ground for this July 14 under reinforced surveillance. The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, renewed the system deployed during the urban violence following the death of Nahel M., 17, killed by the shooting of a police officer during a road check in Nanterre on June 27 . At midnight, no major overflow had been reported.
Several municipalities had decided to give up their fireworks, especially in Île-de-France and in the North. But in Paris, the town hall had maintained the party around the iconic monument. Mayor Anne Hidalgo stressed to Agence France-Presse the importance “of these moments of gathering with family or friends”, adding that it was about “the image of France in the world in one year games “.
At 7 p.m., the esplanade was already packed. Even the dusty side aisles had been taken over. The “Concert de Paris”, broadcast in mondovision, was launched shortly after 9 p.m. Soprano Marie-Laure Garnier performed La Marseillaise”.
The big cities of France at the rendezvous
In Toulouse, it was on the banks of the Garonne that spectators gathered to admire the fireworks, while in Lyon, the Fourvière hill lit up. In Ajaccio, holidaymakers and locals met at the port.