De Gaulle Was a Romantic in Love With France

Léon Noel, the former ambassador who is today president of the French Constitutional Court, enjoys recalling how one day during Dr Gaulle's exile from power he happened to be talking to some workers in an industrial suburb of Paris. Suddenly he switched the conversation to the General, whose admirer and friend he had long been. There was a moment of silence, and then, to his amazement, one of the workers pulled off his rap, and one after the other followed suit. It was as though the ghost of the “Grand Charles” had walked by in person, tearing from these freethinking proletarians an unexpected, grudging gesture of respect.