Veteran's Day & le 11 Novembre.

Today is one of those few national holidays that both France and the U.S. have in common, Veteran's Day, known as Armistice Day (but often simply called "le 11 ovembre") in France and Remembrance Day in Britain and in the Commonwealth.

This may be very well be the last year when France still has any of its WWI Veterans (nicknamed "poilus") still alive. There were 15 of them in 2004 and there are only 6 left this year. (one just died last week).

Do you know, by any chance which country had the greatest number of WWI casualties?
I would have guessed Germany... but in fact, Russia did (then Germany, then France). I also found out that Romania had more casualties than the U.S. . The numbers are staggering. Nothing can compare. The following (source PBS) is a good reminder of how brutal WWI was.

Country	Total Mobilized Forces	Killed	Wounded	Prisoners and Missing	Total Casualties	Casualties as % of Forces
ALLIED AND ASSOCIATED POWERS
Russia	12,000,000	1,700,000	4,950,000	2,500,000	9,150,000	76.3
Germany	11,000,000	1,773,700	4,216,058	1,152,800	7,142,558	64.9
France	8,410,000	1,357,800	4,266,000	537,000	6,160,800	73.3
British Empire	8,904,467	908,371	2,090,212	191,652	3,190,235	35.8
Romania	750,000	335,706	120,000	80,000	535,706	71.4
Italy	5,615,000	650,000	947,000	600,000	2,197,000	39.1
United States	4,355,000	116,516	204,002	4,500	323,018	7.1

NOTE: France and the U.S. have the same number of national holidays, 10 in total and they have 3 of those holidays in common : Christmas, New Year’s Day, and Veterans’ Day. (source US Embassy in Paris)

2006	Day	Holiday	French/U.S.
Jan. 1	Sunday*	New Year's Day	American/French
January 16	Monday	Martin Luther King's Birthday	American
Feb. 20	Monday	President's Day	American
April 17	Monday	Easter Monday	French
May 1	Monday	Labor Day	French
May 8	Monday	Veteran's Day	French
May 25	Thursday	Ascension Day	French
May 29	Monday	Memorial Day	American
July 4	Tuesday	Independence Day	American
July 14	Friday	French National Day	French
Aug. 15	Tuesday	Assumption Day	French
Sept. 4	Monday	Labor Day	American
Oct. 9	Monday	Columbus Day	American
Nov. 1	Wednesday	All Saints' Day	French
Nov. 11	Saturday**	Veterans' Day	American/French
Nov. 23	Thursday	Thanksgiving	American
Dec. 25	Monday	Christmas	American/French