Alexis Delafontaine (special correspondent in Bormes-les-Mimosas), edited by Solène Leroux
The Var department is affected by orange rain-flood and storm vigilance. To avoid bad weather, the municipality of Bormes-les-Mimosas has decided to postpone the ceremony commemorating the liberation of the city. It will take place on Friday evening, in the presence of Emmanuel Macron. The Head of State has put down his suitcases in the town, at Fort Brégançon precisely, for the time of a summer break. This is the fifth time that Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron have spent their summer vacation there. What do they like so much there?
A few trips to the village
“I think what they liked was the tranquility of the village and the respect the Bormeans have for their President of the Republic.” To talk about the presidential couple in Brégançon, without a doubt, it is François Arizzi, the mayor of Bormes-les-Mimosas, who knows it best. When asked where to go to meet the president, the answer is clear. “What he does in the area is private. Even if I knew it, I wouldn’t tell you,” he laughs, even though he assures us that he meets him regularly in the streets of his municipality. He made “a few family trips to the village, it was a good child”.
After a few selfies, “the president shook hands”, then left. “It was with the family, it went very very well”, assures the city councilor.
Curious people want to meet them
But for the most curious, it is on the beach of Brégançon that you have to go. The view is unobstructed of the fort, and so some try to venture out. Like Aurélie, mother. “We would like to see him”, she laughs, especially since with her family, “we spent practically the same holidays as him”: “We try to walk around a bit to see him, but so far unsuccessful.”
In any case, this presidential stay makes one happy. Laurent, the manager of the only straw hut on the beach. “It’s an event. So much the better for the summer visitors, so much the better for us. And then so much the better for him: at least like that he spends his holidays quietly”, he declares. To thank the president, Laurent has a little idea: “Maybe he should come in May, when there is the neighbors’ party, so we make a little bowl together”, if he laughs.
Emmanuel Macron will still be able to enjoy his vacation for a few days before returning to Paris at the end of the week.