Tanks and troops lined up on Paris's Place de la Concorde today as the French capital kicked off a day of festivities to celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of its liberation from Nazi occupation in 1944.
The Second Armoured Division, which led the entry of French and Allied troops into a city German troops were still fleeing, took pride of place amid the flags, the crowds and the military music. President Jacques Chirac decorated three "2nd DB" veterans.
Later in the day, two military columns were due to retrace the paths through central Paris that French and US forces took to seize control of the city, stopping at streets and squares made famous by the fighting that day.
After ceremonies at police headquarters and City Hall, two key points in the reconquest of the city, festivities were due to wind up with a giant party at the Place de la Bastille with swing music and dancers dressed in their 1940s best.
In contrast to the D-Day celebrations in June, which turned into an informal summit of world leaders, no foreign dignitaries have been invited to the Parisian party.
But Paris has taken care to pay ample homage to the GIs who brought freedom, chocolate and bebop music to the city and to several hundred Spanish Republicans who fought in the front ranks of the 2nd DB at the liberation.
In his famous speech at City Hall 60 years ago, General Charles de Gaulle declared Paris had liberated itself with the help of the French military and the population.
He mentioned neither the key resistance role played by his Communist rivals nor the Allied troops who paved the way to the city after invading France on D-Day, June 6th, 1944.