In the heart of the Montparnasse cemetery in Paris, Pascal, a biker from Yvelines, bows, helmet in hand, in front of the tomb of “Jacques Chirac 1932-2019”, as if engraved on the gray granite stele.
No Elyos epitaph.
"It's sober, there is no fuss!
"Comments, in an involuntary pun, the admirer who presents himself as" a servant "of the" bon vivant ", who disappeared on September 26, 2019. This fifty-year-old policeman, endowed with a solid" fork "like the devourer legendary calf's head, is one of the officials who provided the protection of the late President of the Republic.
The "Grail" in a career.
"When he died, it was as if I had lost a member of the family," venerates this burly, sobs in his voice.
It was the first time, on this sunny weekend in September, that he took refuge in front of the burial place of the one "who loved his neighbor".
"I had abandoned it in Saint-Sulpice", confesses the faithful who keeps preciously, in his smartphone, the photograph of the coffin wrapped in the tricolor flag during the funeral in the church of the Odeon district.
"It is Chirac that we are asked the most"
In the days which followed the burial of the Head of State alongside his daughter Laurence, who died three years earlier, thousands of Chiracians (or not) hastened to say goodbye to him.
Since then, security barriers and queues have disappeared.
But we always meet fans who travel especially to pay tribute to him.
Like Myriam, 70, from Carthage, Tunisia, "nostalgic for her humanity" and for "a stature that commanded respect".
They whisper most often and rarely allow themselves a selfie.
An indiscreet, however, does not hesitate to take a look at the little note placed in the pot of cyclamen.
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Over the months, the curious - those who, guide in hand, also wish to immortalize the tombstones of Serge Gainsbourg, Mireille Darc, Charles Baudelaire, César, Yves Mourousi, Professor Choron or Christophe - have become the majority.
Among them, two young ladies with a camera slung over their shoulder, a quadra with dreadlocks or Michel, 54 years old, maintenance worker… in a Gironde cemetery.
"It is still Chirac that we are asked the most, dozens of times every day," identifies a jovial tie guard who directs visitors.
The neighbor of "Chi"?
An ex-situationist!
The signs indicating the whereabouts of the house celebrities still do not include in their alphabetical list "the Chi".
But its name appears all the same on the plan of a plastic sheet at the entrance.
To reach the new star of Montparnasse, you have to, from the "main entrance": walk along the "main avenue" and, in the middle of the central roundabout adorned with a bronze angel statue called "Sleeping genie" eternal ”, turn his gaze to the left.
Beware of traffic jams in the coming days: the pilgrimage crowds should be back for the anniversary date.
To the chagrin of Françoise, whose husband, struck down in 1981 by a cardiac arrest, rests, despite himself, just to the left of the father of the RPR.
At the funeral of the former president, September 30, 2019. / LP / Frédéric Dugit
"It's really terrible, the circus will come back, all the bazaar of Chiraquie parading," she fears, blooming speedwells on the tomb of her "adorable companion" Dominique.
The two neighbors obviously have no affinity.
"He would not have liked to be next to Chirac because he was on the left, socialist and also situationist (Editor's note:
revolutionary intellectual movement
)", reveals the septuagenarian whose husband has rather "connections" with Gainsbarre, buried a few meters further.
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Since the arrival of the most prolific ladle-maker of the Fifth Republic, it has been difficult for him to "speak" with his eternal love.
“I am deprived of any privacy with my husband,” she says indignantly.
A handful of minutes later, a man wearing a keffiyeh, Koran in hand, begins to pray aloud and sing in front of the tomb of the president to whom he worships daily, according to several witnesses.
His words are disjointed but we understand that his name is "Hakoula", that he is "60 years old" and that he was born "in Egypt".
He never ceases to praise "papa Jacques" and "mama Bernadette".
"Thanks to Chirac, he would have obtained French nationality", believes a fan of the place.
But where have the apples gone?
Another mystery in the cemetery.
There are others.
"There, Jacques Chirac, I see it, I feel it", lights up Frédéric, touching the cross crowning the stele.
This rather mystical sixty-year-old is surprised by the decor.
Of course, he did not expect to meditate "in front of a mausoleum".
“But I thought his grave would be isolated from the others,” he says.
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Not far from there, pens are planted in flowerpots at Marguerite Duras's, metro tickets honor the author of “Poinçonneur des Lilas”, Serge Gainsbourg, and lipstick kisses color Simone de Beauvoir's stronghold. and Jean-Paul Sartre.
Apples, on the other hand, no longer grow on the gravestone of the historic mayor of the capital.
Winks to the funny stars of the presidential campaign (victorious) of 1995, the kilos of Golden and other queens of the reinettes apparently no longer have the right to citizenship.
“There were a lot of them at the beginning but it rotted and gathered birds that are fond of it.
So the roadmenders remove them ”, justifies a receptionist of the cemetery.
The kilos of apples, a nod to the 1995 presidential campaign, have disappeared from Jacques Chirac's grave./LP/Olivier Corsan
Stamped "Father Claude", the "canteen" of the 15th arrondissement where Chirac swallowed his snails, the immense basket of apples, surrounded by ivy still alive, is now empty.
On the grave, a model of stainless steel junk of the deceased's favorite fruit has stood the test of time.
"It is never in the same place, people have fun moving it", inquires Jean-Pierre, 76, retired technician and author of a paving stone on the 35,000 concessions of the necropolis of the 14th arrondissement.
In the eyes of this expert with the long white beard, the burial of the most Corrézien of Parisians resembles “a tomb of 1905” with his conspicuous cross: after the law on the separation of Church and State, it allowed them to assert their Catholic faith in the face of "secularists".
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A few ornaments, absent at the time of the funeral, have appeared, dethroning the wreaths: an angel drawn on a stone in the shape of a heart, a dove on a cross, an obscure medal to the glory of Mantegna, "Italian painter of the First Renaissance ”, Wikipedia clarifies, and plaques recalling that“ time passes, your memory remains ”or hoping“ that your rest be sweet as your heart was good ”.
“It's a bit kitsch”, sums up Alain, a local resident.
The one and only time he “saw from not too far” Chirac was at the Stade de France.
“I shouted Jaaaaaacquot!
But he didn't hear me.
Even when you are not on his political side, it is difficult not to have sympathy for him, ”he concedes.
"His grave does not reflect the image of the man"
Andrée, 80, is getting off the hook.
“He did a seven-year term then a five-year term, it is our heritage, a monument of our France which has worked for us and defended our interests and it is not even written
resident of the Republic from such date to such date
!
Any Chinese who arrives will wonder:
But who is Chirac?
Simplicity, okay, but there is a lack of recognition, ”she complains.
This refined style, "without flonflon or tralala", also confuses Dominique, a Varoise who does "the cemeteries rather than the shops".
"We pass in front of his grave without seeing it, it does not reflect the image of the exuberant, charming man, who liked to be looked at and who also knew how to bamboozle us," she tackles.
Hakoula regularly comes to say a prayer in front of Jacques Chirac's tomb, the Koran in his hand./LP / Olivier Corsan
"A character like that no longer exists!"
»Regrets Maud, 53, taphophile (passionate about cemeteries) and funeral assistant in Normandy.
For Selma, 24, the former tenant of the Château "embodies the sumptuous Elysée, a function which then had a sacred character".
"We asked him less accounts, we demand more from Macron," she compares.
Alain, he does not see him "no heirs".
"It's another era, it's like de Gaulle, we never found an equivalent", he believes.
When it comes to evoking a possible lineage, Annick, 60, medical secretary from Annecy (Haute-Savoie) who “completely discovered and appreciated Chirac after his death” thinks, “in the same kind of personality”, to Prime Minister Jean Castex, "close to the people".
"And with a local accent that makes it sympathetic", she judges.
"Sarko", described as "popular", is also cited in the chapter of potential successors.
But less than François Baroin, mayor (LR) of Troyes and "spiritual son of Chichi".
"Oh yes, me, I preach for him, he speaks well, he is not a digger and his actress companion (Editor's note:
Michèle Laroque
), she is not a digger either", incenses Nicole, 83 years old, sitting on a bench with a view of the last home of the “great Jacques” who was “close to the people” and obviously… “not digging”.
