Philippe de Gaulle has devoted his life to managing a legacy. The thoughts, deeds and heritage of his father, Charles de Gaulle, have occupied him since the death on November 9, 1970, of the general who led Free France in World War Two and founded the Fifth Republic in 1958. For more than half a century, the admiral and his tall silhouette have stood guard over his father's legacy, from memoirs to political meetings, from official ceremonies to television broadcasts. The great man's image has pursued him even in the mirror, where every morning a fine mustache appears under a large nose just like his father's.

The passing years might have given Philippe some respite, but he always finds things to do, even at 101.

One morning in the winter of 2022, bent over on his walker, the heir left his room at the Invalides military hospital in Paris, where he lives, to go to the Museum of the Order of the Liberation, a few corridors away. One room is dedicated to Charles de Gaulle: it houses the canteen de Gaulle took with him when he left for London on June 17, 1940; his khaki uniform as leader of Free France, complete with jacket, pants and képi cap; and the Grand Cross of the Royal Order of Victoria presented to the French president by Queen Elizabeth II of England in 1960.

Philippe de Gaulle now wants to entrust his father's military decorations to the museum. The centenarian told General Christian Baptiste, the national delegate of the Order of the Liberation, that it would be "a deposit with no time limit."

He knows his time is short. Everyone around him has already gone. His wife, Henriette, has been waiting for him since 2014 under a tombstone in the cemetery in the town of Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises. The memorial is sober and gray, like the one on the other side of the path that houses Charles de Gaulle and his wife, Yvonne, as well as Philippe's sister, Anne, who had Down syndrome, and died at the age of 20, in 1948. His other sister, Elisabeth, was buried to the right of their parents, in 2013, along with her husband, the grand chancellor of the Legion of Honor and Free France hero Alain de Boissieu.

France's most famous family name

Who will carry on the legacy when Philippe joins them? Politically speaking, the question doesn't come up: There's always someone to claim the legacy of "the most illustrious of Frenchmen," in the words of René Coty, the general's predecessor at the Elysée Palace. Every year, the anniversary of his death is the pretext for a parade of politicians at Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises, although no major figures are expected to attend this year.

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