A national tribute ceremony to actor Jean-Paul Belmondo, who died Monday, September 6 at 88, will take place Thursday afternoon at the Invalides, before his funeral on Friday morning. Here is how the event should unfold.
At what time does the tribute begin?
The ceremony is due to begin at 4.30 p.m. in the main courtyard of the Hôtel des Invalides, a huge space 102 meters long and 64 wide. Covered with the tricolor, the actor’s coffin will be placed in the center.
Who attends the ceremony?
Several hundred people are invited to the ceremony: the family of Jean-Paul Belmondo, his relatives, Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron, members of the government and the political class as well as personalities from the cinema, culture and sport.
Behind them, under the arcades, will be massed some 1,000 people from the public who will have been able to enter without prior invitation but with a health pass.
Two giant screens will broadcast the ceremony on the Esplanade des Invalides.
What will Emmanuel Macron do?
After reviewing the troops, Emmanuel Macron will deliver the eulogy of the one he presented on Monday as “a national treasure” who, “among our great actors, was the one who won hands down the palm of the public“.
The president’s speech will be followed by a minute of silence and the ceremony will be concluded by the Marseillaise.
Can the public come to collect their thoughts?
Due to the immense popularity of the actor, the Elysee Palace and the family have decided to exceptionally open the doors of the Invalides around 7:30 p.m., after the end of the ceremony, to all those who wish to meditate in front of the coffin, who will remain in the yard.
Such a device had already been implemented after the death of former President Jacques Chirac, who died on September 26, 2019 at the age of 86, allowing thousands of people to meditate in front of his coffin.
Who decides on the holding of such a tribute?
The national homage is decided by the President of the Republic with the agreement of the family of the deceased. This honor was previously mainly reserved for soldiers and a few civilians who had “a past resistance or a high rank in the Legion of Honor“, like Jacques Chaban-Delmas, Abbé Pierre or Stéphane Hessel.
After the disappearance of Johnny Halliday in December 2017, his family and the authorities ruled that the strict framework of a national tribute was not suited to his personality. They then organized a “popular tribute” in the streets of Paris before the funeral at the Church of the Madeleine, on the steps of which Emmanuel Macron had delivered a speech.
What other personalities have been honored at Les Invalides?
In 2015, President François Hollande broke new ground by deciding to organize a ceremony at the Invalides for the victims of the attacks of November 13, including that of the Bataclan.
Among the civilian personalities honored at the Invalides are Jacques-Yves Cousteau in 1997 or Pierre Schoendoerffer in 2012, as well as politicians Philippe Seguin (2010), Pierre Mauroy (2013), Charles Pasqua (2015), Michel Rocard (2016). .
Since the start of his five-year term, Emmanuel Macron has already chaired eleven ceremonies at the Invalides in tribute to Simone Veil (2017), Jean d’Ormesson (2017), Claude Lanzmann (2018), Charles Aznavour (2018), Arnaud Beltrame (2018) , Jean Daniel (2020) or Daniel Cordier (2020), as well as to the soldiers who died in Mali in 2019.