Paris metro station honors Queen Elizabeth II during funeral

Commuters walk past a sign in the Parisian underground metro station “George V” which is temporarily replaced with a placard reading “Elizabeth II 1926-2022”, in the Parisian Metro station George V, in Paris, on September 19, 2022. AFP

PARIS — A Paris metro station on the Champs-Elysees has been renamed Elizabeth II for the day as a tribute to the British queen during her funeral.

Signs in the George V metro station — named after the queen’s grandfather — were replaced on Monday as a mark of respect for the British sovereign, who will be buried later after a service in London.

“We wanted to join in the day of mourning by putting up the sign ‘Elizabeth II 1926-2022’ in the George V station on Line 1,” a spokeswoman for the Paris metro operator RATP told AFP.

The station will revert to being called George V on Tuesday.

French flags have been ordered to fly at half mast on public buildings by the prime minister but a small number of mayors are resisting the instruction.

Patrick Proisy, the left-wing mayor of Faches-Thumesnil, northeastern France, said he would refuse to lower the flag on public buildings in his village.

Although he expressed his condolences after the queen’s death, he said such a move contradicted France’s republican principles of “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”.

“No concept is further from ‘equality’ than the monarchy,” he wrote on social media on September 10.

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