General de GAULLE
The man who incarnated June 18, 1940 and the Fifth French Republic
Born in 1890 to a patriotic Roman Catholic family, he graduated from Saint-Cyr and chose to serve in an infantry regiment. He was taken prisoner in 1916. Between the two World Wars, he reflected on reforming the army. Promoted to colonel and then general, he was appointed to Paul Reynaud’s government. When an armistice was sought, he left for London where he launched his famous appeal. He organised the Free French Forces. He later resigned from the presidency of the Provisional Government in 1946. In a speech pronounced in Bayeux, in June of the same year, he laid out the foundations for the Fifth Republic. He became President of the Republic in 1958. In 1965 he was elected to a second term by universal suffrage. Following the 1969 Referendum, he retired to Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises, where he died in 1970.
De Gaulle goes to China !
The Grévin Museum donated a replica of General de Gaulle’s waxwork figure to their counterpart in Beijing. The figure travelled all the way to the Forbidden City in the care of its godmother, Mireille Mathieu. This was in December 1994. The President was tall, as everyone knew, so that four seats had to be reserved to transport the figure on the aircraft. He was the first Head of State to recognise Communist China in 1964, but he never set foot there in his lifetime. Thirty years on, his waxwork figure went to China... in his stead.
General de Gaulle entered the Grévin on four separate occasions. Every time the figure was removed, in particular after his death, visitors wanted him back.
The Referendum was clear and he was reinstated!