National Day of Mourning, Monday 30th September 2019. Dozens of people came in front of the Saint-Sulpice church in Paris, where the solemn tribute to Jacques Chirac was celebrated.
A cathedral silence fell on Monday, September 30, 2019, on the parsonage of Saint-Sulpice Church in Paris. A crowd gathered early in the morning to witness the homage paid to Jacques Chirac, the former president who died on Thursday 26th September.
“A double tribute”
Gently, Murielle approaches. Apologizes. She wants to be closer to the barriers located about ten meters from the entrance to the church. She would have preferred to do it in front of Notre-Dame de Paris, the usual place of national funerals, but it is the second-largest church in Paris that hosts the funeral of Jacques Chirac.
Read also: Death of Jacques Chirac: from the Corrèze to the Elysée, the major stages of his life
It is 9:45 am, only a handful of people have already crossed the roadblocks leading to the building. Thérèse is one of them, along with his son Alexandre. “He had a story evaluation this morning, but I preferred him to live the story live,” says the mother, moved to tears:
“My parents were from the right, I’m from the right, he was elected in 1995 when I got my baccalaureate.”
“Catho as Mr. Chirac”, she spent her weekend on pilgrimage to Lisieux (Calvados). “We prayed for Mr. Chirac, I was in communion of prayer with him and his family,” said the forty-year-old who takes this tribute to think of his mother, “party”. Isabelle, from Bordeaux (Gironde), is also “a double tribute” to the former president and her mother, who disappeared in January.
Obsèques de Jacques Chirac : venue de #Bordeaux, Isabelle a amené un bouquet de roses blanches, comme hier aux Invalides. “Ma mère aimait M. Chirac, elle aimait les roses blanches. Elle est partie en janvier, c’est un double hommage que je rends aujourd’hui.” pic.twitter.com/inxAuc38hE
— actu Paris (@actufrparis) September 30, 2019
“It’s nice to see the right people united”
That the mourning of the former president is mingled with family mourning does not surprise Alain, a deacon who arrived from Yvetot (Seine-Maritime). “Chirac was a man of heart who knew how to speak in the heart of man,” he said with a moist eye. His first vote, in 1974, was for the one who would become President of the Republic in 1995. A little thanks to Alain, who “always voted for him, subjugated as soon as he appeared”:
“I went to his meetings, I saw him in Le Havre when he visited the synagogue.”
A few steps behind Alain, Serge smiled. “It’s nice to see the people right united,” he breathes. While the first officials arrived, climbing the steps of the church, the septuagenarian stopped dead: “That’s Balladur! The rivalry of 1995 disappeared in the spirit of Serge, whose “champion” had been eliminated by Jacques Chirac and Lionel Jospin also present in the first round.
Obsèques de Jacques Chirac : des applaudissements à l’arrivée de Claude Chirac. Son passage parmi ceux venus rendre hommage à son père aux Invalides a été salué dans le public : “Un geste admirable.” pic.twitter.com/JvIDJacjSZ
— actu Paris (@actufrparis) September 30, 2019
Thérèse, who has found Claude Chirac’s gesture “exceptional, admirable”, will applaud with all hands when the Archbishop of Paris, Mgr Aupetit, evokes “the absence of Bernadette Chirac because of her state of health”. The former first lady, as applauded as Nicolas Sarkozy, was, however, present at the Invalides, from where the coffin of her former husband is gone.
After mass, broadcast live on the forecourt, the casket left for the Montparnasse cemetery, where Jacques Chirac will rest with Laurence, his daughter who died in 2016. Serge said he was relieved: “After having fought so much, he is finally going to find rest. “
