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French President Presides Over Scaled Back Bastille Day Celebration

VOA News

   Fighter jets streaked across the skies over Paris Tuesday, creating
   trails of blue-white-and-red smoke as France celebrated a somewhat
   subdued Bastille Day.

   The country's biggest national holiday was recalibrated this year to
   celebrate the heroes of the coronavirus pandemic, with ambulance
   drivers, supermarket cashiers, postal workers and medics among the many
   honored.

   This year's commemorations also paid homage to former President Charles
   de Gaulle, 80 years after the historic appeal he made to opponents of
   France's Nazi occupiers that gave birth to the French Resistance.

   Additionally, a helicopter flyover featured vehicles which transported
   COVID-19 patients in distress. COVID-19 is the disease caused by the
   novel coronavirus.

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