Dressed in blue, sometimes accompanied by a bicycle… Nearly 300 people marched through the streets of Limoges this Saturday to pay tribute to the “man in blue”, a septuagenarian cyclist fatally hit by a car last week.
An emblematic figure of the city, Jean-Marc Chatard, 74, had been traveling the roads of the department for years, dressed in his overalls and rubber boots. On November 8, this former mason and farmer died from his injuries after being hit by a motorist on a local road that he used to take to return home.
“His simplicity, his smile were part of the soul of our city”
“His overalls, his rubber boots and especially his bicycle were his everyday companions. He was a unique and loved person in Limoges, even if he was never fully aware of it. His simplicity, his smile were part of the soul of our city,” said his great-niece Mathilde Lavergne.
“I saw him for the first time when I was fifteen, he came to buy soles in the store I worked in at the time,” said Josiane, a sixty-year-old dressed in overalls.
The facade of the town hall adorned in blue at night after the death of this emblematic cyclist
In 2020, a pastry shop garnished its Epiphany king cakes with a bean bearing his image and a website which listed good addresses also bore his nickname. After his death, the facade of the Limoges town hall was adorned with blue at night.
All our articles on cycling
Coming to the call of the Véli Vélo association, other participants deplored the “cruel lack” of facilities for cyclists. “Even if cycle paths have emerged in Limoges, some remain impassable,” lament Richard and Jacques, without giving their last name.
The death of Jean-Marc Chatard, after that of a cyclist run over by an SUV driver on October 15 in Paris, shed light on the sometimes conflicting cohabitation between bicycles and cars.
