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Sad days again as Diana’s death investigated this week in Paris

It was a sunny morning as I crunched through leaves walking along the Seine from my home bridge, Pont Neuf, to the Pont d’Alma, a bridge close to the Eiffel Tower.  Below the d’Alma on the downriver side is the statue of “Le Zouave” (pictured below, far left), an image of an Algerian infantryman in the French army. These infantrymen’s uniforms were unique: a fez, a tight fitting short jacket, a ten-foot-long sash, baggy trousers, and white tights. The statue is famous for measuring the level of the Seine. Our tour guide last week mentioned that the Seine rose up to his neck one scary year.

         Princess Di and Dodi Al-Fayed shrine in Harrods  

The d’Alma bridge is also famous because it is next to the underpass (sometimes called the “tunnel”) where Princess Diana’s car crashed into a piling on August 31, 1997 (photo above, far right). After dining at the nearby Ritz Hotel, Dodi Fayed and Diana rode in a speeding car back to Dodi’s apartment, racing ahead of paparazzi. Dodi and the driver Henri Paul died immediately in the crash. Diana died later at Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital. I chose not to walk along the underpass, though there is a narrow sidewalk on either side of the car lanes.

An unofficial memorial site to Diana is under the “Flame of Liberty” monument (shown above, second from left) on a small paved area roughly at street level above the 13th pillar where the Mercedes crashed. The monument itself is actually the golden flame of the Statue of Liberty’s torch, dedicated to the friendship between the United States and France. There is also a memorial site (shown above, second from right) for Dodi and Diana at Harrods, the London department store Dodi’s father Mohamed Al-Fayed owns.

I bring all this up because Mohamed Al-Fayed has pushed for another inquest into his son and Diana’s deaths. The inquest jury will be visiting Paris this week. Conspiracy theories will again be presented as Mr. Al-Fayed looks for more reasons for the crash, more reasons than the sad combination of alcohol, speed, distraction from paparrazi, and passengers not using seat belts.

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