Don't forget. Commemorate, once again, the memory of November 11, 1918. To prevent it from crumbling over time, this memory, Grégory Viguié, wrote ten books on what links the Great War and Gard. He lives in Poulx, near Nîmes. A historian in his spare time, because he is… a bus driver.
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The portrait of the great-grandfather in uniform
“I have always loved the transport profession, he says. I had an uncle and a grandfather who were at the SNCF so I liked it. Then, meeting people, the feeling of being useful.“He has been driving buses in the Nîmes metropolitan area for around fifteen years. By day he is at the wheel and by night behind his archives.
He owes this passion to the portrait of his great-grandfather in his grandmother's living room during his childhood: an ancestor in uniform. “My grandmother was tired of seeing me drooling over this painting, so she took it down and gave it to me. She also gave me her archives. I started sorting them, reading them, and really the DNA of genealogy arrived at that moment.”
The historian-bus driver passes his lost hours in the archives departmental offices of Gard, at the Carré d'art library in Nîmes. For him, it is above all for the duty of memory: “What will happen for the bicentenary of the Great War? Will war memorials always be in the center of villages? Will there still be a public holiday? Will the furry ones be completely forgotten?”he asks himself. “So it’s very important to continue the work of memory.”
In Gard, 12,866 soldiers died for France. For the 106th anniversary of the Armistice, a tribute ceremony takes place this Monday, November 11 in front of the town hall of Nîmes.
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