On the side of a fire-gutted bank on one of the most troubled housing estates in greater Paris, an ornate plaque remains unscathed despite days of rioting.
“France has lost a battle!” reads the gold lettering on black stone. “But France has not lost the war!”
All French citizens — even those living in this blighted corner of the western suburb of Nanterre — are meant to recognise Charles de Gaulle’s famous Appeal of June 1940.
When he made it, France had suffered a cataclysmic defeat at the hands of the invading Germans. From exile in London, le Général was attempting to revive fighting spirit and patriotism.
The former has been much in evidence across France over the past two weeks, but not the latter.
