Jean-Marie Le Pen buried in La Trinité-sur-Mer, his home port

It was in the church where he was an altar boy that the funeral of Jean-Marie Le Pen was celebrated on Saturday afternoon, in La Trinité-sur-Mer (Morbihan). A symbolic place for the Breton, since it is his hometown. Two years ago, he attended the funeral of one of his very good friends in this same building. In the summer of 2023, he traveled there one last time for his granddaughter’s wedding. Since then, his state of health had no longer allowed him to return to the town of 1,800 inhabitants, popular with Parisians, which had become his refuge in the summer.

“It’s no wonder the mass is here. This will be done with humanity”confides Alexandra, florist in La Trinité-sur-Mer, shortly before the ceremony. On this abnormally hectic day for the month of January, here she is transporting the latest floral arrangements, ordered by deputies or supporters. In four days, she completed around 80, the equivalent of a month’s work. “Jean-Marie Le Pen came to get his flowers here to decorate his parents’ grave”says the professional. He also ordered some for the receptions he organized in the area. “They were people like you and me when they came here”she said about the family of the founder of the FN.

A good sailor

“He wasn’t really Le Pen when he came here. It was Jean-Marie”confides one of his former advisors. “It was Jean-Marie, not the political animal”adds another of his traveling companions from the first circle, in La Trinité. “When we had dinners, he never talked about politics. He knew how to tell extraordinary Trinitarian stories. says this photographer.

A true Breton, the controversial politician had his sea legs and loved sailing, according to those who knew him locally. “He liked to recharge his batteries and take a breath of Breton air far from the tumult of Paris”testifies Frank, a family friend who frequented Jean-Marie Le Pen in Carnac, the neighboring village where the frontist also had his addresses. It was in 1983 that he met the man he describes as “an open history book”. He was also committed to his side. “In 2002, he called me to find out if our election posters were torn up. If that was the case, he said it was a good signal for the result..

It is the Trinitain at heart that the town welcomes today in his final resting place

Yves Normand, mayor of La Trinité-sur-Mer

“We respected him”

Trinité-sur-Mer has, however, never been an electoral stronghold of the RN. “We adhere to his ideas or not, but we all respected him because he was a Trinitan”observes Stéphane, manager of the «bar-tab» of the municipality. “He arrived in the summer and parked on the bridge to have an aperitif with his friends”says the boss. Like Alain Souchon, another village celebrity, “there were no groupies or crowds when he came”shares a port trader, used to serving it with ease.

“Far from his national notoriety, he loved to enjoy his home here with his friends and family, in privacy and discretion. It is the Trinitain of heart that the town welcomes today in his final resting place.reacted in a brief press release Yves Normand, mayor of La Trinité-sur-Mer, absent from the funeral mass. “He was a character who was criticized but who had human qualitiesrecognizes Jean-Michel Carpentier, whose house is adjoining that of the Le Pen family. We had good neighborly terms.” Trinitain for 50 years, he qualifies the information according to which the former MEP who died at 96 was not involved in politics here: “For four to five years, he organized conferences at La Trinité”. There was also a big rally in 1986 when 35 deputies were elected by proportional representation.

The five-bedroom farmhouse with blue shutters where Jean-Marie Le Pen was born is located in an alley with a Breton name. “When we were kids, it wasn’t very comfortable” remembers Trinitain Florent de Kersauson, RN regional advisor for Brittany. “I always saw Jean at La Trinité. I have the impression that when he came, it was a passing house. Friends came to drink”. In the 1990s, she was regularly tagged.

On this funeral day, security is reinforced around this symbolic place which is still frequented. From now on, the daughters and grandchildren of the tribune continue to stay there on vacation in turn. La Trinité-sur-Mer is the family stronghold where, alongside his parents, Jean-Marie Le Pen wanted to be buried, after 96 years of existence. “My life – How long the road is”sang Alain Barrière, another personality next to whom he now rests.