It all started on June 14 in Haute-Saône where the president landed at the Luxeuil military air base. After a night in Vesoul, he left for Dole with his wife, affectionately nicknamed “Aunt Yvonne”, aboard the presidential Simca Chambord. After reception at the town hall, then located on Place Nationale, where he was welcomed by the senator-mayor Charles Laurent-Thouverey, he went to the covered market to address the Dolois.
A crowd bath in Poligny
The marathon continues towards Arbois then Poligny, a town decorated with the Croix de Guerre, where he is received by the mayor Georges Curasson before taking part in a crowd bath. He will then head towards Saint-Germain-lès-Arlay and Plainoiseau, where he will make short stops greeting in particular a “broken face” from the Indochina War, Marcelin Brantus who came in uniform, displaying his medals.
In Lons-le-Saunier, he was received with great pomp in the hall of honor of the town hall by the mayor Paul Seguin while the senator and president of the General Council Edgar Faure offered him Rouget’s gold watch. de-Lisle, acquired by the Department, as a “testimony of affectionate attention”, he declares.
As is traditional, the President of the Republic will spend the night at the Prefecture after the formal meal, and it is said that the prefectural services have had to struggle to find a bed to fit the illustrious character…
On the way to the upper Jura
The next day, it will be the departure for Saint-Claude, then Morez, Morbier, Saint-Laurent-en-Grandvaux, Cize, Champagnole (quarter of an hour stop), Équevillon, Onglières, Plénise and Censeau then Doubs. He will end his journey in the Territoire de Belfort on Sunday June 17.
The president’s speeches during these stops focused essentially on the coming together and the necessary national unity, while the Algerian war and the tragedies accompanying it were ending and a constitutional revision was being prepared aimed at establishing the election of the president by universal suffrage.
Such a trip was not without risk at that time, between the signing of the Evian Accords prepared secretly in Les Rousses and the next proclamation of independence of Algeria (the following July 4). The possibility of attacks appears to have a high probability. Moreover, certain pieds noirs, recently settled in the Jura, were placed under house arrest and monitored by the police…
