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Greeted by endless ovations

In the morning, the plane of the president of the provisional government of the French Republic landed in Mérignac. With his head held high and his step determined, under the goodwill of the Cross of Lorraine – emblem, since July 1940, of the “Free France” resistance movement – Charles de Gaulle set foot on the soil of the Gironde again, this time in the liberator.

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In the streets of Bordeaux, the noise rises as the official cars pass. The crowd is there. The streets were black with people.

Once on land, the head of state descends the Cours de l'Intendance to reach the prefecture. Communion is instant with the Girondins who have come to cheer him. The general is there, there, embodying this taste of the new freedom.

Various personalities greeted him in front of the prefecture: the prefect of the Gironde, Léon Coursin, Maurice Papon (prefect and director of the Commissariat of the Republic) or Gabriel Delaunay, Jean Costedoat and Jacques Lemoîne (founder of the “Sud Ouest” newspaper)members of the Committee for the Liberation of the Gironde.

It is enough to see each other, to look at each other as we are, eye to eye, to measure to what extent we form a whole that nothing can ever break.

And it is on the balcony of the same prefecture that General de Gaulle appears, accompanied by a resounding acclamation, to give his speech, in which he declares (among other things): “All Frenchmen have the same goal. They will go there brotherly, united like brothers and sisters, hand in hand. I realize – and knew beforehand – that we all agree. It is enough to see us, to look at us as we are, eye to eye, to measure the extent to which we form a whole that nothing can ever break.”