Daniel-Jean Valade, the elected representative of Nîmes, keeps in his family archives four photos of the visit of Vincent Auriol, guest of honor at the Pentecost feria in May 1964 in Nîmes. He was 13 at the time and he remembers having seen with his father this figure of the Fourth Republic who was the first socialist president to enter the Élysée in 1947.
“Vincent “Tauriol”, as it was often said then, who was no longer Head of State, presented Mayor Edgar Tailhades with the “Prestige of France” diploma, awarded to the City for international relations and tourism. This framed diploma has long been enthroned in the reception room leading to the mayor’s office. The Jardins de la Fontaine were decorated in the Provençal style with herdsmen and Arles women. I was struck by the evocation in his speech with his accent of Sud-Ouest by evoking the crusade against the Albigenses of the “fierce barons of the North”.
A formula that still resonates with the scholar from the Gard who is particularly attached to Languedoc history. “We are cultured and intelligent enough not to have to let our lives be dictated by the knights of Ile-de-France. “, launches this eminent member of the Academy of Nîmes.
On May 17, 1964, the Gard day of Vincent Auriol, 79, was busy. He signs Rodilhan’s guestbook and participates in the bull run of the youngest municipality in the department. In the afternoon, he is the witness at the presidential stand of the arenas of Nîmes with his wife and the Nîmes writer, Marc Bernard, of a historic bullfight. Daniel-Jean Valade is also among the privileged spectators of the triumph of El Cordobès. A time held for the Johnny Hallyday of bullfighting, he lights the fire and cuts off 24 ears, a tail and a leg. He made the front page of Paris Match, which ensured his notoriety as a bullfighter as well as that of the Roman arena which had become essential.
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