Just before leaving, de Gaulle told Coulet, ‘Don’t give them any politics; that is not what they want.’ Coulet followed this advice. He found himself dealing with citizens who mostly harboured no negative feelings towards Pétain. Even the leader of the local liberation committee had a portrait of Pétain in his house. The bishop was ardently Pétainist and what worried him most was that Coulet was Protestant.
