Franco/German Peace; Fifty Years of Friendship
The fabled Gothic Cathedral city of Reims in eastern France was the setting for an extraordinary entente between two former enemies.
Reims, which was devastated by artillery fire in WWI, thus became an unlikely place to seal a peace pact.
But on 8 July 1962, French President Charles de Gaulle and West Germany's Chancellor Konrad Adenauer met and signed the
documents which would put an end to a brutal cycle of conflict which started in 1870 and lasted to 1945.
These two statesmen of foresight and vision paved the path for the formal Elysee Treaty which would be signed the following year.
Today a half century later French President Francois Hollande met with Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel to reaffirm the friendship and reconciliation.
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