Diana tributes laid at Paris tunnel crash site

Last updated at 16:29 31 August 2007


Dozens of Diana photographs have been placed in tribute at the site where the princess's limousine crashed 10 years ago, still a place of pilgrimage for her loyal fans.

The Alma tunnel, on the north bank of the River Seine, has also become a must-see spot for tourists, both appalled by and drawn to the site where the 36-year-old Diana died on August 31, 1997.

In yesterday morning's sunshine, a handful of people rubbed shoulders on the Pont de l'Alma, pausing to snap a picture, reading the tributes scrawled on the bridge's stone wall and peer down into the mouth of the dim expressway.

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"Ten years on and the world still mourns," reads one recent message in bright red ink, next to another: "Poor rich, everyone loved her".

"Ti amo sempre" (I still love you) wrote Paolo Marazzi from Parma in Italy, in a signed photograph dated August 27, while Celine, from Montreal in Quebec, wrote simply: "I remember".

Pavel Nowak, 37, travelled 2,000km by bus from Chodel in Poland to be in Paris for the anniversary of Diana's death.

alma tunnel

"Diana is a historic figure, she lives on in our hearts and our minds," he said, bending to lay a newspaper clipping about her death, marked with the single word: "Love" before a watching crowd of reporters and cameramen.

Britain is marking the 10th anniversary of Princess Diana's death today with a royal memorial service to the "people's princess".

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Diana's sons Prince William and Prince Harry, her ex-husband Prince Charles and Queen Elizabeth II, will mark the tragedy-a moment that many say changed Britain forever-with a solemn service in central London.

No official events are planned in Paris, but well-wishers have left dozens of bouquets and photo tributes at the foot of a sculpture of a giant golden flame above the tunnel, which has become an ad-hoc shrine since her death.

The work, a replica of the flame of the US Statue of Liberty, bears no relation to Diana, but many tourists assume it to be a memorial-a larger-than-life "Candle in the Wind," in the words of the Diana tribute song by Elton John.

Early yesterday, a woman wipes down the monument's slate-grey base, as others snap photos of the work.

Sebastien Mengozzi, a nearby florist, says the stream of visitors had dwindled in recent years: "Yesterday I sold two roses. That's nothing compared to just after the accident. My predecessor made a fortune!"

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But for many the site still holds special resonance, such as Brigitte and Marie-Chantal Yvon, a mother and daughter visiting the capital from the western French region of Brittany.

"We simply couldn't not come here," said Marie-Chantal. "Her death touched us. She was a woman who accomplished a lot. It's such a sad way to die."

On the afternoon of August 31, 1997, Diana-who was then divorced from Prince Charles, father of her sons-flew into the French capital from Sardinia with her boyfriend Dodi Fayed, 42.

After several hours shopping, the couple dined at the exclusive Ritz hotel owned by Fayed's father, the Egyptian millionaire and Harrods magnate Mohamed Al Fayed.

They left at around midnight in a car driven by the deputy head of security at the Ritz, Henri Paul, who was called back after an evening off duty to help smuggle the couple from the hotel unseen by the paparazzi posted outside.

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