The flags of France, Germany and the European Union wave lazily on this spring noon on the top of Fort Douaumont, one of the 11 that formed the outer defensive belt of Verdun in 1914 when neighboring Metz was part of the German empire and Paris and Berlin were preparing to sacrifice cohorts of young men in a bloody and sterile contest.

French and Germans, they killed each other again between 1939 and 1945. Exhausted, they began a path of reconciliation that has led to the celebration of