Paris - Tens of thousands of Parisians gathered Monday in the Place de la Concorde in the centre of the French capital to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall with a spectacular light-and-music show. The history of those fateful November days was depicted in slides and collages on giant screens deployed on the historic square, where large, brightly decorated steles resembling pieces of the Wall had been set up.
The music was provided by 27 cellists from the 27 member states of the European Union who paid homage to the late Russian cello maestro Mstislav Rostropovich, who had given an impromptu performance of a Bach suite at Checkpoint Charlie immediately after the Wall came down.
In addition, the stately facades of the Place de la Concorde served as screens for projections showing, among other things, the drawings and graffiti that had been painted on the Wall during its 28-year existence.
The French celebrations were somewhat marred by a controversy over President Nicolas Sarkozy's Facebook account of a visit he claims to have made to Berlin on November 9, 1989, for the fall of the Wall.
Many reports, including newspaper articles from the time by the daily Le Figaro, appeared to contradict Sarkozy's assertion that he was in Berlin on that night and had hacked off pieces of the Wall with a pick-axe.
