The Elysée may well present Emmanuel Macron's Tour de France as a "secular pilgrimage", a detail was brought up on Monday to the ears of the president's advisers: the trip this Tuesday to Valence (Drôme) will be like the one in the Lot at the end of last week. That is to say on the paths… of the Catholic pilgrimage of Saint-Jacques Compostelle. "A pure coincidence, we realized afterwards", swears a relative. “Everyone sees the wink they want. When he talks about taking back his pilgrim's staff, it is of course to reconnect with the French. But somewhere, too, a spiritual process for him, ”rebounds another.
The roaming of Saint-Cirq-Lapopie and Martel was to represent the symbol of "happy rurality" for the launch of this Tour de France which should last a good month. This time, in Valence, Emmanuel Macron will look for another postcard: “The art of living, French excellence”. On the eve of the new deconfinement measures, which provide in particular for the reopening of interior rooms of restaurants and bars, the Head of State has concocted a menu that will allow him to meet high school apprentices hotelier of Tain-l'Hermitage, before a lunch with some local and national figures of gastronomy, including starred chefs Anne-Sophie Pic and Michel Chabran.
“The catering sectors suffered enormously during the crisis, and this affected the entire ecosystem: from the cook to the waiter, including producers and apprentices.
He comes to support them, promote them and above all tell them that we have now left.
The president wants to send them a strong message before the reopening, ”blows his entourage.
The opportunity for Macron to continue the "positive attitude" developed during these recent trips.
History to show that the country is starting again.
"He goes all out, even if it means making crates"
Because the stake is obviously political too. “If he doesn't say that things are going well, that we have reason to be happy despite the crisis that we have just gone through, no one will. Especially not our opponents. So he goes all out, even if it means making crates, ”decrypts a ministerial adviser. At the risk of sometimes doing too much? Last Thursday, the images of a president all smiles appearing in the tourist and rock scenery of Saint-Cirq-Lapopie also caused much discussion internally. “Starting your Tour de France in a Potemkin village is not super clever. It was still a bit too much. If he wants to convince, he must also go where we do not expect him. He must take his share of the risk by coming up against the French who are really suffering, ”commented a Secretary of State.
“Valence is a city of excellence in gastronomy. But also an average city like France has many, with problems that we find elsewhere, defend its relatives. He will go to meet the inhabitants. Given how the subjects of pensions, dependence and youth returned to the forefront of the news last week, he obviously expects to be challenged on it. And he will respond. The Elysee also recalls, in passing, that the mayor of Martel, met last week, is a member of the Left Radical Party. That of Valence, Nicolas Daragon, is with the Republicans and vice-president of Laurent Wauquiez with the regional council of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes… Annoyed comment of a supporter of Macron: “It is therefore not a tour of LREM cities, far from there. "