VIDEO: Croats in France unite under Arc de Triomphe for tribute

(Photo credit: Vesna Dizdar Spajic)

Croats living in France gathered under the Arc de Triomphe to honor the memory of fallen soldiers—those who fought under Napoleon’s banners, and those who gave their lives in the Homeland War.

An account of the event and the past and future of Franco-Croatian friendship below is written by solider Louis Anaestaese Pastre.

PARIS, May 25, 2025

There are moments when History, the Heavens, and the Heart conspire together to give birth to a handful of unforgettable hours.

Last Sunday, under the august vault of the Arc de Triomphe, a ceremony in honor of Franco-Croatian friendship took place in a radiance both solar and deeply ceremonial.

(Photo credit: Vesna Dizdar Spajic)

And as if to salute this gathering of noble souls, the clouds themselves parted: for after a morning battered by persistent rain, it was under a suddenly blue and mild sky, Alcyonian as if washed by Providence, that the event, and for some, the great event, took place.

The still-fresh wind carried echoes of an ancient world to be recaptured, and the damp cobblestones gleamed as if to reflect the memory of our brave men, fallen in battle.

It was 4:30 p.m. when the troops formed up: French veterans, Croatian comrades-in-arms, members of the diaspora, diplomatic representatives.

(Photo credit: Vesna Dizdar Spajic)

And everywhere, straight gazes, high chests, and that virile and dignified contemplation that only respect for sacrifice can inspire.

The figures of the young Croatian girls, dressed in the traditional costumes of the different regions of the greater Croatia of their ancestors, added the grace typical of the Epinal images of our Old Europe, and a touch of roots, to this Parisian scene.

(Photo credit: Vesna Dizdar Spajic)

The red, the white, the blue, a thousand beads, multicolored thread embroidery, the thick braids, the kerchiefs… Everything sang the soul of this people of the Dinaric Alps, this great people of the Adriatic, Slavic, with a Mediterranean-Nordic distinctiveness, come today to greet France and pay homage to its ancestors.

The moment was solemn after the laying of wreaths. While silence reigned, the flame of the Unknown Soldier, the eternal sentinel, was rekindled in mute emotion.

(Photo credit: Vesna Dizdar Spajic)

The sacred spark of the Franco-Croatian alliance, like a white phoenix, was revived. Light. This simple gesture, shared between two peoples once separated by history but now united in honor, was applauded with modesty full of elevation. Indeed, France often looked to Croatia, the bulwark country that has watched over the confines of Roman Europe for centuries, with admiration, but too often, alas, with distance.

(Photo credit: Vesna Dizdar Spajic)

It is time to repair this silence and embrace what unites us. And with these simple words, my Croatian brothers and sisters, you who held Vukovar as we held Verdun, in the name of all the Gallic people I carry in my heart, I extend our hand to you.

To you, whose fathers fought at Lepanto, Siget, Knin, like ours at Poitiers, Bouvines, Agincourt, and Bir Hakeim. And even together, under the aegis of Napoleon, in the vision of a Thule-Tellurian Europe, from the simple soldier to the Marshal of the Empire : from Austerlitz to Moscow.

In a world that denies its fathers, you have remained sons. In a world without borders, sky, horizon, or aristocracy, you have remained a people.

Following the laying of wreaths and the rekindling of the flame, the speeches were brief but penetrating.

The representative of the Croatian Embassy recalled the boldness of his community, of the Croatian nation, and a French veteran spoke, in a grave voice, of his experience during the Homeland War, then evoked the greatness of countries that know the cost of holding on when everything collapses.

(Photo credit: Vesna Dizdar Spajic)

But it was at the very end of the ceremony that the miracle of the heart was added to that of the sky. While the golden light of Vesna’s spring caressed the fluttering flags, a young French soldier, a future officer of the Silent Service, a paratrooper, wearing a red beret, with a steely gaze, slowly advanced. Before the audience, suspended in suspense, like a knight before his lady, he bent his left knee to the ground.

And there, before the sacred flame, the veterans, the banners, and the skies that had become pure once more, he asked for the hand of his own sacred flame, his beloved: a young French woman of Croatian blood, Joséphine, known as Josipa, a living witness to the union of two peoples in honor, love; fidelity to honor and to their primordial love.

(Photo credit: Vesna Dizdar Spajic)

Video below by Kristina Dizdar Kordic.

There was a shudder in the ranks, tears in the eyes of members of each family, even in the corners of the eyes of a few officials, and generally a contained but palpable emotion, from the veteran smiling gravely to the stunned tourist, mouth wide open, but silent, respectful, as if everyone sensed that something irreducibly beautiful and ineffable had just been sealed; a promise of rebirth, of rooting, of transmission, for France, Croatia, Europe.

(Photo credit: Vesna Dizdar Spajic)

Thus, Paris, on this memorable day, not only saluted its dead and its heroes: it witnessed the birth, beneath its milder skies, of the union of two souls, a living reflection of the revived union between these two lands: France and Croatia.

Written by: Louis-Anæstase Pastre

Translated by: Vesna Dizdar Spajic