2023-09-01 03:29:53
A last tribute was paid Thursday in the church of Aspet in Haute-Garonne to General Georgelin who supervised the construction site of Notre-Dame de Paris.
Former chief of staff of the armies, Jean-Louis Georgelin died accidentally on August 18 in Ariège during a hike in the Pyrenees, a few days before his 75th birthday.
“You are leaving us in these Pyrenees that we always travel with so much pleasure, close to our native village to which we are so attached”, declared his younger brother Joël, at the end of a religious ceremony celebrated in the Saint-Martin church. of Aspet.
“Farewell my brother, farewell my general”
“You will rest in peace in this cemetery of Aspet where many members of our family are buried, facing the Cagire, this beautiful peak that you will be able to contemplate eternally and our prayers will accompany you, goodbye my brother, goodbye my general”, he concluded.
Before the religious homage, the ringtone to the dead had sounded on the forecourt of the church, facing the coffin of the five-star general, covered with a large French flag and on which his decorations had been placed.
The ceremony took place at the Saint-Martin d’Aspet church. AFP or licensors
Several dozen people, including his family, senior military officials, the prefect of Occitanie, Pierre-André Durand, the mayor of Toulouse, Jean-Luc Moudenc, and residents of Aspet, were present.
He was “really the child of the country”, declared the mayor of the village, Jean-Sébastien Billaud-Chaoui. He was “a mountain and hiking enthusiast, who came, I believe, to recharge his batteries in Aspet, to catch his breath in the Pyrenees that he loved so much”.
“You are often defined as a committed man with a strong character, I for my part remember a discreet and benevolent man”, he added during his public tribute in front of the church.
Philippe Jost, deputy director of the public establishment responsible for the restoration of Notre-Dame de Paris, for his part declared that the “community” of craftsmen and all those working on the construction site of the cathedral now felt like an orphan.
“She knows what she owes you,” he added. “In charge of a challenge deemed unreasonable if not crazy by many, you have set up the conditions for success to such an extent that 15 months from the goal today, everyone now considers it credible,” he said. .
Last Friday, the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron, who in April 2019 had instructed General Georgelin to supervise the site, had hailed “a leader of men” and an “exemplary servant”. “On December 8, 2024, we will find Notre-Dame (…) You will be there my general”, “we will think of you, I will think of you”, he declared.
“You were one of us”
At Aspet, the general’s brothers in arms had also come in large numbers. Chief of Staff of the French Armed Forces (Cema) from 2006 to 2010, General Georgelin supervised operations in Côte d’Ivoire, Afghanistan, the Balkans and Lebanon.
“We came because you were one of us,” said Colonel Claude Reau, former corps commander of the 153rd infantry regiment (known as 15.3), based in Mutzig (Bas-Rhin), facing the coffin. “We came to greet Captain Georgelin, we came to greet Colonel Georgelin commanding 15.3, we came to greet Army General Georgelin who was celebrating with us without manners”, he declaimed, in front of many senior officers .
Many soldiers were present. AFP or licensors
“Our Lady must have welcomed you with a smile acknowledging your merits, Saint Michael, patron of the paratroopers, Saint Maurice, patron of the infantry, had to escort you to her. On behalf of the military community, on behalf of all those who served at 15.3, General, I salute you,” he concluded.
General Georgelin was then buried privately in the village cemetery, where he was born on August 30, 1948.
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