France, Germany celebrate friendship amid crisis

Chancellor Angela Merkel and resident Francois Hollande

The leaders of France and Germany joined in a symbolic celebration of unity on Sunday, hailing a relationship that has brought peace to Europe for 50 years but must now prove it can survive its most serious crisis to date.

Taking a pause from more than two years of constant crisis management that has strained Franco-German ties, President Francois Hollande welcomed his German counterpart, Chancellor Angela Merkel, to the city of Reims in eastern France.

The event replicated an encounter in 1962 between former French president Charles de Gaulle and German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, when the two leaders enshrined Franco-German ties in a city that once bore the brunt of shelling in World War One.

Read more: France, Germany celebrate friendship amid crisis- swissinfo