Tthird wife of the former mayor of Bordeaux, Micheline Chaban-Delmas died this Friday, November 15 in her apartment on rue de Lille, in Paris, in the same place and twenty-four years almost to the day after her husband (on the 10 November 2000). She was 95 years old. “She and Chaban were the ideal couple, she adored her husband who also adored her, it was exceptional. He spoke of her with loving eyes, he called her ''Bouclette''”, remembers Hugues Martin, former mayor of Bordeaux (2004-2006), long-time deputy of Chaban.
“We know the role she played with Jacques Chaban-Delmas in enlivening the cultural life of our city and giving it exceptional influence. She also carried out, with the discretion that characterized her, generous charitable or social actions, particularly aimed at young people,” underlines another former mayor, Alain Juppé.
Close to Chaban, television man Cyril Viguier maintained an ongoing relationship with Micheline Chaban-Delmas: “I saw her every week, I saw her again last Thursday. She was always interested in Bordeaux, in what was happening there, in political life, in Matignon, with great keenness. She was never in the political system but she greatly influenced Jacques Chaban-Delmas. She had a strong character but also a great openness to others and to societal developments. We could talk about everything, certain social subjects which were taboo for people of her generation were not for her. »
At the table with Ceausescu
Cyril Viguier regrets not having recorded the memories of the woman who was also nicknamed “la Chabanou” in Bordeaux: “Following a romantic encounter, she found herself the wife of the Prime Minister, she knew the world entire. She told me about a dinner with the shah of Iran, where she had made friends with a very affable stranger. ''Who is this charming man?'' she asked her husband. It was Ceausescu, the dictator of Soviet Romania! »
“She was a first-rate passer, with great curiosity”
In Bordeaux, the founder of the Arc en rêve architecture center, Francine Fort, worked extensively with Micheline Chaban-Delmas. “She was both very committed and very discreet,” she remembers. She was the mayor's best advisor on contemporary art, culture, architecture, but always remaining behind the political machine, keen to stay in her place, while informing the mayor of things that were not his. say. She was a first-rate passer, with great curiosity, a force for action so that the City could take up certain issues. »
Hugues Martin adds that the wife of the ex-mayor “had all her weight in certain areas: culture, town planning, architecture. She was innovative, avant-garde, we owe her cultural orientations which hit the headlines at the time, but left traces. She did not get involved in politics but she had a wide field of action. She will leave a great memory in our memories. »
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