In the heart of Paris, on the stretch leading to the Eiffel Tower, stands a huge sculpture of a flame known as the 'Flame of Liberty'. When I asked a passerby about it, he said, "The car crash that killed Princess Diana occurred here. This monument was built in her memory."
As one of the most famous women of all time, Diana was a global icon, loved by her friends and family and adored from afar by millions. The Princess of Wales captivated the world with her mousy brown hair and pretty blue eyes. Her smile was known to portray a certain innocence and coyness.
After she split from Prince Charles, she was romantically involved with billionaire businessman Dodi Al-Fayed. They were on a trip to Paris when the car they were travelling in hit a concrete pillar head-on in the Place D'Alma underpass in the early hours of August 31, 1997.
Dodi and their French chauffeur Henri Paul were found dead at the scene. Diana was taken to a Paris hospital, where she died a few hours later. Her bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones was the only person to survive the car crash. Paul was later found to have a blood alcohol level of 180 milligrams per 100 millilitres of blood, nearly four times the legal limit in France.
August 31 will mark the 27th death anniversary of Diana, who was killed at the age of 36.
'The Flame of Liberty' has since become an unofficial memorial to Princess Diana. In fact, this bronze sculpture, a replica of the one topping the Statue of Liberty, was built in 1989 as a symbol of friendship between France and the USA. It was gifted to the city by donors to the International Herald Tribune in celebration of the newspaper's 100th anniversary of publishing an English daily in Paris.
Since Diana's tragic death, the sculpture, supported by a pedestal of gray-and-black marble, has been chosen by local residents and tourists to lay wreaths of flowers, like an altar to her memory, and many continue to honour her there to this day. The square where the flame is located has been renamed in honor of the princess in 2019.
