The last time we see Jean-Louis Georgelin, he was spiritedly climbing the stairs to the construction platform behind Notre-Dame de Paris. Georgelin was speaking loudly, as was his custom – shouting would probably be the right word – with a smile dancing on his lips. "You saw the flying buttress there, ah yes... The hardest thing about this type of project is managing the schedule."
Ever since French President Emmanuel Macron entrusted him with the mission – in the aftermath of the fire that took place on April 15, 2019 – the reconstruction of the cathedral had been his prime focus. The shaky edifice now rested on his shoulders, as the retired Chief of Staff of the French Armed Forces, with his reputation as a braggart, a man suspicious of technocracy but entirely at ease in its mysteries. "Isn't this mess beautiful?" he asked. "Yes, it's beautiful," we answered, and this became our last image of him, avidly watching the scaffolding of the spire being put into place.
On Friday, August 18, in Ariège, on the slopes of Mont Valier, Genera Georgelin died as he lived, walking fast and strong during one of the solitary hikes he was still fond of at the age of 74 in the Pyrénées. "Investigations have established that his death was the result of a major fall during the descent, at around 8 pm, on a particularly steep rocky passage", the prosecutor's office said on Saturday evening.
Aspet, in the former Comminges region, is just over an hour's drive away, this is where the general, a practicing Catholic, was born on August 30, 1948. His maternal grandparents ran a grocery store in the village of 800 inhabitants. His father was a soldier in Indochina and Algeria. During the period of the war in Indochina, his mother lived "secluded" here with her three children. His father ended up as a captain.
Their son studied at École Spéciale Militaire Saint-Cyr, with a focus on science, while in Paris others were building barricades, before choosing the infantry. "I'm an infantryman. Walking makes you think," he insisted the first time we met him, to illustrate the fact that he went to the Notre-Dame construction site on foot. For the son of a lower ranking officer to become a five-star general is rare enough to merit a mention. Within the army, Georgelin was a child of social climbing – to the highest level.
After working as Jacques Chirac's private chief of staff at the Elysée Palace, he served as Army chief of staff until 2010, before becoming Grand Chancellor of the Legion of Honor. In this role, he rubbed shoulders with François Hollande. He also became embroiled in a controversy with Aurélie Filippetti when he first refused to award the Légion d'honneur to Bob Dylan, before relenting. "As a result, I studied him a lot," he remembered, amused. "I discovered his extraordinary popularity, and that he was shortlisted for the Nobel Prize for literature." Then there's Nicolas Sarkozy, who is said to have just criticized him for singing too loudly at mass. "People aren't aware of their own voice," he apologized. "But yes, it's true, I love singing in church."
You have 61.18% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.