Gisele Pelicot awarded France's highest honour as country marks Bastille Day
Ms Pelicot – a global symbol in the struggle against sexual violence – was named knight of the Legion of Honour on a list published ahead of the national holiday.
She waived her right to anonymity during the trial of her then-husband, who had drugged and raped her and invited dozens of strangers to also abuse her over the course of years.
Following the three-month trial, her husband and the 50 other abusers were sentenced to a total of 428 years in prison.
Nearly 600 other people were also given the award, including Holocaust survivor and French Resistance fighter Yvette Levy, and musician Pharrell Williams who has designed a collection for Louis Vuitton.
Celebrations were taking place across the country on Monday culminating in fireworks in nearly every French town.
The heart of the festivities was in Paris, where 7,000 participants marched on horseback or armoured vehicles in a military parade along the cobblestones of the Champs-Élysées.
The annual event commemorates the storming of the Bastille fortress and prison on 14 July 1789, a pivotal moment that ignited the French Revolution and led to the overthrow of the monarchy.
This year's event returned to Champs-Élysées after being moved to Avenue Foch by last year's Olympic Games.
The French Army, Navy and air force paraded in front of French officials and visiting political leaders including Indonesia's President Prabowo Subianto who is representing the world's biggest Muslim country. Indonesia contributed 451 soldiers to the parade, including a drum band of 189 musicians.
For the first time, a prison dog was part of the Bastille Day parade, alongside his handler. The Belgian Malinois shepherd, Gun, is specialised in weapons and ammunition detection.
Beyond the military spectacle in Paris are growing concerns about an uncertain world.
On the eve of Bastille Day, Mr Macron announced €6.5 billion ($7.6 billion) in extra French military spending in the next two years because of new threats ranging from Russia to terrorism and online attacks. The French leader called for intensified efforts to protect Europe and support for Ukraine.
'Since 1945, our freedom has never been so threatened, and never so seriously,″ Mr Macron said. ''We are experiencing a return to the fact of a nuclear threat, and a proliferation of major conflicts.″
Many parts of France celebrated on Sunday evening, including in parts of Paris were 176 arrests were made in the metropolitan area according to Laurent Nuñez, prefect of police for Paris.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Telegraph
a few seconds ago
- Telegraph
How the Afghan crisis became Starmer's latest migrant headache
Sir Keir Starmer could be forgiven for quietly cursing his luck. Late on Thursday 10 July, as he stood next to Emmanuel Macron, the Prime Minister must have felt he was finally getting somewhere on illegal migration. The announcement of a returns agreement with France, albeit one whose limited scope attracted criticism, was meant to be the moment the Government began to shift the narrative on small boats. Yet, just over 12 hours later, Downing Street was scrambling to respond to a very different border crisis, as news filtered through that the lid was about to be lifted on a secret Afghan resettlement scheme. Just over a mile away at the High Court, Mr Justice Chamberlain had ruled that a two-year gagging order, which banned the media from referring to the programme in any way, would finally be lifted the following Tuesday. His judgment sparked a frantic 100-hour dash to activate contingency plans in Whitehall, as ministers braced for the public fallout. Defence officials had avoided telling many of the nearly 20,000 people affected by the leak that they were on the list. They feared the news might spread and bring the data breach to the attention of the Taliban. All of that changed last Friday morning when 'break glass' emergency plans were activated and officials started getting in touch with thousands of victims to warn them that the resettlement scheme was about to go public. Mandarins at the Ministry of Defence (MoD) stayed through the night as they worked speedily to dole out security advice and open up lines of communication, while defence ministers held calls across Whitehall to co-ordinate the response. John Healey, the Defence Secretary, and Luke Pollard, the Armed Forces Minister, were on the bureaucratic front line throughout the weekend, staying in the office until past midnight on Sunday as officials raced against time. David Lammy's Foreign Office was also called in to help, setting up a 24/7 email and phone helpline for Afghans worried about their security. As the clock ticked over into Monday, advisers suddenly realised that they faced another obstacle to their plans, this time in the form of Parliament's arcane rules. Tuesday had been set aside in the Commons calendar for a Tory 'opposition day' – one of 20 such dates throughout the year when opposition parties get to take control of the order paper and dictate the subjects that MPs debate. As a result there were no Government statements scheduled for that day, despite the fact that Mr Healey would need to update Parliament on the disclosure of the resettlement scheme once the super-injunction was lifted. The unique impasse, which Whitehall sources said was unprecedented, meant that Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Commons Speaker, and Kemi Badenoch, the Tory leader, had to be brought into the loop so that they could make time. At midday, the gagging order formally ended and The Telegraph and other media organisations who had challenged the injunction were finally able to disclose the jaw-dropping details and scale of the scheme. The Defence Secretary rose to his feet 40 minutes later to address a quietened Commons. 'Today I am announcing to the House a change in Government policy. I am closing that resettlement route, disclosing the data loss, and confirming that the court order was lifted at 12 noon today,' he solemnly declared. 'It has been deeply uncomfortable to be constrained from reporting to this House. No Government wishes to withhold information from the British public, parliamentarians or the press in this manner.' Mr Healey had barely sat down before the political recriminations began in earnest, with both Labour and Reform laying the blame firmly at the Tories' door. The revelations also set off a circular firing squad within the Conservative Party as ex-Cabinet ministers briefed that they had objected to the scheme, but were overruled after the MoD used 'emotional blackmail' to force the plan through. Sir Ben Wallace, the former defence secretary who applied for the injunction, came out fighting in an article for The Telegraph in which he said he made 'no apology' for actions which had saved the lives of Afghans who served alongside British soldiers. His successor, Sir Grant Shapps, who extended the gagging order just weeks before last year's general election, tried to shift the blame to Labour by insisting he was 'surprised' the new Government had kept it in place for 'quite so long'. Downing Street was 'pretty gobsmacked' by the comments, according to sources, not least because after entering office Mr Healey had swiftly ordered a review of the scheme which ultimately led to the judge overturning the super-injunction. Reform UK, meanwhile, leapt on the scandal to attack senior Tory Right-wingers, particularly Robert Jenrick, who represent the biggest threat to Nigel Farage's attempts to peel off further Right-wing voters. Zia Yusuf, the former Reform chairman who now heads up its Doge unit, fired off a series of posts on X accusing Mr Jenrick of lying about his involvement in the scheme, and attacking Suella Braverman, who was home secretary at the time. His outburst was notable as it was the first time that Mr Farage's party had openly attacked current leaders on the Tory Right, with whom it would probably need to form a coalition if it failed to secure a majority at the next election. As the initial fury over the scandal turned to questions about what happened next, it was Labour which faced the trickiest dilemma as it tried to assuage public anger over a scandal that it inherited from the Conservatives. The bad headlines continued at the weekend, including The Telegraph's revelations that Afghan migrants arriving under the resettlement programme had brought as many as 22 family members to the UK with them. Those revelations will heap pressure on Sir Keir and Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, who have come under fire over a surge in small boat arrivals, which are up 50 per cent on last year. At the same time, Downing Street is facing the prospect of a rebellion from Left-wing backbenchers over its attempts to bring down net migration by curbing the number of people who are arriving legally in Britain on work visas. Parliament heads off for its summer recess on Tuesday and – with Labour MPs on the laxest, one-line whip for attendance next week – many have already returned to their constituencies to recharge their batteries. By the time they return in September, there will be new crises and controversies. But for an administration that will increasingly come to be defined by its record on immigration, the consequences of the Afghan scandal are profound.
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Recognising Palestine will consign Britain and France to total irrelevance
The current warmth between Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron may have opened the door to greater co-operation between France and the UK, but the Prime Minister must resist the French president's ardent desire for the entente amicale to extend to premature recognition of the state of Palestine. Announcing an annual national day of commemoration for Alfred Dreyfus (the Jewish army captain wrongly imprisoned for treason in 1894) last week, President Macron had the audacity to warn of the 'demons of anti-Semitism' while urging his Western allies to join him in entrenching an anti-Israel bias that would supercharge those demons. It is barely believable that any liberal democracy would think that this could be the moment to reward the terrorist regime and its proxies by recognising the state of Palestine – before any peace deal or path to stability is agreed, and while the region is a tinderbox and the butchers of October 7 2023 are still keeping hostages from their families after the horrendous mass murder and rape of Jewish civilians. Yet that is precisely what Macron is continuing to press on Sir Keir. The Prime Minister deserves credit for resisting so far. But the fact that France is stepping up the campaign for recognition, rather than stepping back, continuing to lobby the UK and the EU, shows that Starmer must go beyond privately saying 'pas encore' to this absurdly damaging suggestion. To be clear, as a former chairman of Labour Friends of Israel, I am deeply committed to the ultimate goal of two sovereign states, Israel and Palestine, living securely and independently at peace. The alternatives are either a greater Israel with no justice for Palestinians, or the terrorists' goal of wiping Israel off the map completely. Both are unconscionable. But it is post-empire arrogance to think that countries such as the UK and France, looking in from the outside, can short-circuit the process by officially recognising Palestine as a state without any agreement between the people who will have to live side by side and make it work. Announcing recognition like this will not make Starmer and Macron key players in the push for peace. The gesture would do the opposite; it would indefinitely sideline France and Britain from the difficult discussions ahead in the Middle East after many years in which their friendship with Israel had made the countries genuinely influential in this vital area. The consequence of recognising Palestine now, in the shadow of a conflict triggered by the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, would do more damage than just making the UK seem weak and ineffective on the international stage. It would be seen as Britain rewarding the Islamist terrorists of Hamas and Hezbollah, and bolstering their Iranian puppet masters, who are dedicated to exporting violence and anti-Semitism to undermine our liberal freedoms in the West. It is wrong to view any international diplomacy through the prism of the impact it will have on the government's domestic standing with voters. Leaders need to lead on the international stage and act in the UK's long-term strategic interest, not be buffeted by ever-changing opinion polls on intractable global issues. So Labour should ignore siren voices urging it to recognise Palestine to win back discontented Muslim voters in communities where the rise of Gaza-focused independent politicians is a genuine electoral threat. If party strategists are weighing up the domestic impact of any change on Labour's policy towards Palestine, they must bear in mind that the political backlash will surely outweigh the benefits. The Jewish community in Britain may be relatively small and contain a wide variety of views on Israel-Palestine, but Sir Keir should not underestimate how many British Jews will feel deeply disappointed in him if he makes this gesture on recognition now. Particularly after he has worked so hard to restore trust in Labour after the appalling anti-Semitism that stained the party during Jeremy Corbyn's leadership. It is true that many Jews in Britain are dismayed by the increasingly hardline policies of the Netanyahu government and the scale of destruction in Gaza. That does not mean they will accept or forgive a futile diplomatic gesture on recognition that will be treated as a victory by Hamas. And the domestic blowback of a Labour Government recognising Palestine now will not end there. The solutions to conflict in the Middle East may not be top of the priority list of many white working-class voters in towns such as Barrow-in-Furness, which I used to represent in the House of Commons. But sure as hell those Red Wall voters will hate the idea that Labour is being swayed by the crowds they see marching for Gaza, with all the extremism on display in those protests. That is exactly what they will be told by Nigel Farage and his new army of Reform councillors in key electoral battlegrounds if Labour moves its position. And just as Hamas would be emboldened by the sense their actions have results, so would the organisers of the marches feel their aggressive tactics have been vindicated – encouraging fresh militancy. Decisions facing leaders on international affairs are often delicately balanced. Prematurely recognising the state of Palestine should not be one of those decisions. The Prime Minister is showing strength and deft judgment on other security issues, such as Ukraine and the need for rearmament. He should reject this nonsense and sideline anyone around him who is urging him down this path.
Times
3 hours ago
- Times
The Louvre makeover that will push up price of seeing Mona Lisa
A baking summer's afternoon at the Louvre. Milling around the Mona Lisa are maybe 150 people, all with their phones held high above their heads so they can snap that enigmatic smile. Meanwhile, in the vast galleries surrounding Leonardo's masterpiece, an eternal throng of visitors from every corner of the globe trudges wearily on — most, this far into the gallery, seemingly oblivious to the glorious art around them. Paris's great museum has about nine miles of galleries, spread over 403 rooms. You enter it from beneath IM Pei's celebrated glass pyramid, which on a day like this behaves like a giant magnifying glass for the blazing sun. Many visitors probably won't venture more than half a mile into the heart of the museum. But in this huge, former royal palace there is one tranquil room. Far from the madding crowd, Laurence des Cars, 59, the first female director of the Louvre in 228 years, sits in her book-lined office, the picture of the formidable, Sorbonne-educated Parisian intellectual she is. If she is physically distanced from the heaving mass of humanity trudging round her domain, however, her brain is constantly occupied with it. 'One of my first decisions when I became the director in 2021 was to limit our daily admissions to 30,000,' she says. 'You know that, just before Covid, the Louvre was getting ten million visitors a year? When I got here the staff said, 'Please let's not go back to that because some days we were up to 45,000 visitors.' And that figure is too much. Even now we are saturated. The building is suffocating. It's not good for staff, visitors or the art.' Last month the Louvre's staff emphasised their grievances by going on a spontaneous strike (a 'mass expression of exasperation', their union official said), leaving thousands of tourists outside with no idea why they weren't being let in. 'It wasn't a strike,' des Cars says firmly. 'It was a meeting with the unions because of the conditions and especially the heat. I put in place immediate measures to make things better and we reopened that afternoon.' All the world's top museums — from the Vatican in Rome to the British Museum in London — are facing this same problem: huge congestion, especially around the handful of masterpieces that every tourist has heard of. But the overcrowding is felt most acutely by the Louvre, which still receives more visitors (8.7 million last year) than any other museum, yet has some of the worst facilities. We know this because six months ago a memo outlining its problems was leaked to a Paris newspaper. It caused a stir not just because it was addressed to Rachida Dati, France's culture minister, but because it was written by des Cars. She was jaw-droppingly frank. 'Visiting the Louvre is a physical ordeal,' she wrote. 'Visitors have no space to take a break. The food options and restroom facilities are insufficient in volume, falling below international standards. The signage needs to be completely redesigned.' Pei's pyramid, she went on, creates a 'very inhospitable' atmosphere on hot days. Other parts of the old building are 'no longer watertight'. Nobody has revealed who leaked the memo, but it's hard to imagine des Cars being upset by the revelation because within days came a dramatic intervention from on high. President Macron announced a redevelopment project that he called the 'nouvelle renaissance' of the Louvre. It's masterminded by des Cars and every bit as radical a reshaping as François Mitterrand's 'grand projét' of the 1980s, which led to Pei's pyramid. By chance it will run simultaneously with something similar in London: the £1 billion masterplan to renovate the British Museum, a coincidence that hasn't escaped des Cars' notice. 'I talk a lot with Nick Cullinan [the BM's director],' she says. 'He's wonderful, a great professional and he's dealing with exactly the same issues.' The most controversial feature of des Cars' plan is her proposed solution to the problem of that huge rugby scrum around the Mona Lisa. She wants to remove the painting to one of several new underground galleries to be excavated under the Cour Carrée courtyard, where it will get its own entrance requiring punters to buy an additional ticket (the price is yet to be decided). • The secret life of the Louvre: inside the world's biggest museum She also envisages a second entrance to the Louvre on the far side from where the pyramid is. 'The idea of having just one entrance to this enormous museum was a nice idea in the 1980s when the Louvre had just four million visitors a year,' she says. 'But that was before the Berlin Wall fell, before the Chinese started travelling, before international tourism reached the levels we have today. We are going back to what was always the case — several entrances for the Louvre.' At the same time the museum will be given a technical makeover. That will take ten years, des Cars estimates, whereas she suggests that the Mona Lisa gallery and the new entrance will be ready by 2031 or 2032. 'We are running a competition to find an architect and will appoint one early next year,' she says. 'And the Louvre won't close at all. That's the strength of having a very large building. You can rebuild half of it and still function in the other half.' One benefit of all this, des Cars says, is that it will help people to get to different galleries more quickly, introducing more lifts and better signage. 'On the second floor we have the most extraordinary collection of French paintings anywhere in the world and virtually nobody looks at them,' she says. 'You start to think, what's wrong with Poussin? The answer is nothing. The real problem is that to get from the pyramid to Poussin takes 20 to 25 minutes, and that's if you walk quickly and don't get lost. If we can sort out these problems people will discover many new joys.' It comes at a price, though. The ten-year project is expected to cost about £700 million. Unlike the British Museum's masterplan, however, at least half the required funding is already guaranteed. 'The technical renovation will be funded by the Ministry of Culture,' des Cars says. 'As for the new galleries and entrance, our trademark licence deal with the Louvre Abu Dhabi [which des Cars spent six years helping to set up] will give us at least £175 million. The rest we will raise from corporate and private supporters.' Even here, des Cars has an advantage over her British counterparts. 'When you say the word Louvre people all over the world pay attention,' she says. The gallery has one other huge income stream not available to UK museums. It charges for admission and the ticket prices are about to go up — £19 for EU citizens and a hefty £26 for non-EU visitors, including the poor old Brits. Sounds as if we need to rejoin the EU, I say. 'Please do!' des Cars says, beaming. But what does she think of the UK's generous policy of keeping its national museums free to all, even foreigners? 'I am absolutely not allowed to make any judgment on that,' she says with a laugh, and then makes one anyway. 'I mean, it's very admirable but is it sustainable in today's world? That's a political decision. I leave you to have your debate.' • Best time to visit the Louvre: top tips for your trip The daughter and granddaughter of distinguished French writers, des Cars was a respected art historian, writing a classic study of the pre-Raphaelites before she started running big Parisian museums (she was head of the Musée d'Orsay and the Musée de l'Orangerie before the Louvre). Surely it must break her heart to see thousands of people using great art merely as background for their selfies, disrupting other visitors' enjoyment in the process? Has she considered banning the use of phones, as other art galleries have done? 'I know they are trying but I simply don't know how you do it,' she says. 'We considered it when I was at the Orangerie and the security team said, 'We can't force people not to use phones.' Also I think it's dangerous to go against the times we live in, but you can remind people that they are in a cultural space and need to respect each other, the staff and the artworks.' • Mona Lisa to get her own room in the Louvre And perhaps be a bit more curious about venturing into galleries that don't contain the most famous paintings on the planet? 'We are already making changes to attract people to less-visited parts of the museum,' des Cars says. 'For instance, we could have put our new Louvre Couture [the museum's first venture into fashion] in our exhibitions space, but instead we placed it within the department of decorative arts and now those galleries get a hugely increased number of visitors, especially young people.' As the Louvre's first female director, can she do anything to mitigate the fact that the vast majority of artworks here were created by men? 'You cannot change history but there are other ways of addressing that question. In the spring of 2027 I'm programming an exhibition on the theme of amazons, ancient and modern — from Greek women warriors to powerful women today. It will be a fascinating journey.' And how is this very powerful woman enjoying her own fascinating journey? 'When I was appointed I felt ready to run the Louvre, which sounds immodest,' des Cars replies. 'Maybe I will be a disaster and someone will have to shout, 'Stop!' I don't know.' I would be amazed if anyone did that — or at least not until the mid-2030s, when she has finished remaking the Louvre for the 21st century. Additional research by Ziba Manteghi
