Flame of Liberty Memorial

This bronze sculpture – a replica of the one topping New York’s Statue of Liberty – was placed here in 1987 on the centenary of the launch of the International Herald Tribune newspaper, as a symbol of friendship between France and the USA. On 31 August 1997 in the place d’Alma underpass below, Diana, Princess of Wales, was killed in a devastating car accident along with her companion, Dodi Fayed, and their chauffeur, Henri Paul, and the Flame of Liberty became something of a memorial to her, decorated with flowers, photographs, graffiti and personal notes. It was renovated and cleaned in 2002 and, this being the age of short (or no) memories, apart from a bit of sentimental graffiti on a wall nearby there are no longer any reminders of the tragedy that happened so close by and had so much of the Western world in grief at the time.