It is hard to imagine, knowing the stature and reserve of the man, hearing General Charles de Gaulle humming a song while shaving. Or recite a poem by Albert Samain while making a success (a patience game).
Philippe de Gaulle, only son of the former French president, recounts these intimate anecdotes with a mixture of restraint and affection in this small collection of 160 pages delivered as a will, a few months before his death at the age of 102. Another short chapter entitled “Family modesty” looks at familiarity and formality within the family.
Interesting, certainly, such details remain rare throughout the pages. You are a de Gaulle or you are not. The son, who is not his first work on his illustrious father, prefers to present his opinions, sometimes very conservative, or to set the record straight on certain aspects of his father’s life.
No, he says for example, his parents did not spend their wedding night at the Lutetia hotel in Paris. No, de Gaulle did not, as some claim, forget that the air force had to support tanks in his directives dating from the start of the Second World War. And doubtful is the assertion of a cardiologist having attributed the discovery of the aneurysm which would kill the general on the evening of November 9, 1970.
Philippe de Gaulle affirms, he always wanted to live without being “subservient” to his father. Hence, for example, his choice to pursue his military career in the navy, the least Gaullist corps of the French army. But he still comes to her aid on several occasions. Believing that his father was more of a strategist than a dreamer, he asserts that the latter saw before anyone else that Hitler was going to lose the war.
If there is an event where he “didn’t see anything coming,” it was May 68. There, de Gaulle was “surprised by history” instead of predicting it, says his son.
The author devotes a chapter to Admiral Émile Henry Muselier who led the rallying of the islands of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon to Free France on the night of December 24, 1941. This event embarrassed the Canadian government because the raid had started from Halifax and Canada still had links with the Vichy regime. However, Philippe de Gaulle here mentions the “government of Montreal” instead of that of Ottawa.
In short, there are many instructive or at least entertaining passages in this collection. While others remain on the surface. In addition, the reader will not find a link from one chapter to another. We go from rooster to donkey. We jump back in time. The whole thing is nice, but uneven. Anecdotal, but with beautiful surges of tenderness.
Failing to be a striking work, these Last memories will be read as if we were leafing through a family album with dog-eared photos while the author whispers to us comments in elegant French without being bombastic.
Extract
When France collapsed in June 1940, Saxcé’s eldest child, Arnaud, joined General de Gaulle in Great Britain. I had just finished the Naval Academy in the spring of 1942 when I was invited to lunch in London by my parents at the Rubens Hotel. There was a pale, tense young man in an air force midshipman’s uniform. It was Arnaud de Saxcé, very intimidated, who replied: “I am a Spitfire pilot”, when asked in which weapon he served. We learned, three years later, that he had been killed on April 10, 1945, while carrying out low-level attacks on the coast of the Netherlands, in a Spitfire IX.
Who is Philippe de Gaulle?
The only son of Charles and Yvonne de Gaulle, brother of Élisabeth and Anne, Philippe de Gaulle made a career in the navy where he reached the rank of admiral. He was elected senator (RPR party before joining the UMP) of Paris in 1986, a position he held until 2004. He died in Paris on March 13, 2024 at the age of 102. He rests next to his father in the cemetery of Colombey-les-Deux-Églises.
Last memories
Plon
160 pages
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