In recent years, he could be seen smiling and joking at book fairs in cities around the country. Patiently seated in front of a stack of his books (historical and political works, memoirs and detective novels), he was always the first to arrive and the last to leave. On his book-signing table, he kept a stock of blue and red felt-tip pens with which to draw a Marianne, a tricolor flag, or a Phrygian cap on the flyleaf of his books, as a reminder of his attachment to the French Republic, of which he was one of the most ardent defenders.

Jean-Louis Debré, who died on Tuesday, March 4, at the age of 80, relished these encounters with his readers, most of them former Gaullist activists and sympathizers, for whom he had swapped his dark suits for a simple shirt, jeans and blue scarf, the color of his political family. He loved to linger with them and tell funny anecdotes, often the same ones, but they delighted those who heard them for the first time. When he wasn't devoting his time to writing or selling his books, he liked performing in plays of his own making, in which he gave himself the starring role. The political world looked on with amusement at this elder statesman turned entertainer, who never failed to critique the generation in power. He also accepted invitations to speak about Gaullism and institutions, a heritage of which he felt he was the guarantor.

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