A Certain Idea of France: The Life of Charles de Gaulle

by Julian T. Jackson

In Bayeux, loudspeakers informed the population that de Gaulle was arriving. Coulet had preceded him at the prefecture where he was welcomed by the Vichy sous-préfet who clambered on to a chair to remove the portrait of Pétain before greeting de Gaulle respectfully. De Gaulle refused a glass of champagne and met local dignitaries, including the bishop. The transition from one regime to another was effected in a matter of minutes. De Gaulle now proceeded on foot to the central square where he made a speech. Whether bemused or flattered, the peaceable Norman peasants who had not suffered terribly under the Occupation until the recent Allied bombing were enjoined by him to ‘continue the combat today as you have never ceased to do since the start of this war and since June 1940’.