On 18th June 1940 Général de Gaulle made his famous appeal to the people of France and so began the French resistance to occupation. L'appel was made from London and each 18th June there is a ceremony at 4 Carlton Gardens. This year was the 68th anniversary and it might very well turn out that this anniversary of the Général de Gaulle’s Appeal to a stricken France was historic itself. There was the annual spray of wreaths at the foot of the statue of the Général attended by the French Ambassador, representatives of the French veterans’ associations with their standard bearers, representatives of the French Forces and associations of French groups in the UK, and children from the Lycée Charles de Gaulle and some British people too. There was also a delegation from Normandy and Seine Maritime. But the man we all looked at with the greatest respect and admiration was Mr Jean-Louis Crémieux-Brilhac, one of the compagnons de la première heure and historian of Free France, who answered L'appel by escaping from a prison camp to come to London to join de Gaulle . With him present, along with other Français Libres, the ceremony took on an added poignancy. His Excellency’s speech reminded us how the Général called on French people to join him who preferred “le refus au renoncement”. But he also pointed out how L’Appel as a lesson in resolution and confidence in France was still relevant to face all the current challenges.
The statue of the Général was erected in 1993 in front of n°4 Carlton Gardens which was the Quartier Général of the Free French Forces and the offices of the new governmental structure being put in place. But as Mr Crémieux-Brilhac pointed out this was more than an HQ, this was “le foyer et l’âme de la France Libre”.
For us at the Alliance française de Londres this had a particular echo since the Alliance had Général de Gaulle as its Président d’honneur (from 1941) who was grateful to the Alliance for having been the first association to rally and offer support to la France Libre. The Alliance ended up holding its meetings at n°3 Carlton Gardens. But this is another story to be told soon.
This year, for the first time, the participants to the ceremony had the privilege of being invited to go into n°4, an historic building in France's history. The current occupants of n°4 Carlton Gardens are an international firm of lawyers, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale, who organised a memorable reception in their conference room and the Général’s former office. We listened with emotion to Mr Crémieux-Brilhac who recounted for us some anecdotes about the building, and who confirmed that the wood-panelling in the Général’s office was the original!
The day was another wonderful moment of Entente Cordiale and Franco-British solidarity. |
