15:30 Francois Hollande arrives in Fouras after his visit to Hermione. There is no rain, no offense to those who said this morning that the rain often followed the Head of State in his travels. Accompanied by Ségolène Royal, the president of the Poitou-Charentes region, Jean-François Macaire, Dominique Bussereau, President of the General Council of Charente-Maritime, and mayors of Rochefort, La Rochelle and Fouras, it slowly up the street took him to the scene. He said a kind word of it, and there, lets take a picture. The onlookers were delighted.
“He shook my hand!”, “It’s good, I pictured!” . In passing, one woman, all the same, said the back of his mind: “When do you increase our pensions? Lower taxes! “, she says, on principle. An old man in a cap shouts “Segolene, president” , the passage of the Minister of Ecology. The street runs along the esplanade where the festivities are held. On the opposite side of the square, a crowd observe from afar. Approaching, they risk losing their place on the waterfront, won at the price of several hours of waiting. Between François Hollande and Hermione, they have chosen. The convoy “official” finally come to the area around the scene.
On the stands reserved for students participating in the show, teenage giggle at the approach of the president. They applaud his way, visibly impressed. In the background is the soundtrack of Pirates of the Caribbean , played by a marching band. Soon after, the desk, Segolene Royal, former president of the region, ignites for the “citizen project, cultural and artistic” of the ship. It then delivers the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen to two members of the volunteer crew. Then comes the reading of a letter from Barack Obama by the consul of the United States, Thomas Wolf. A letter received yesterday, in response to a letter from the mayor (UMP) Rochefort, Hervé Blanché. US President evokes two peoples “united by the freedom they are mutually accountable” , and links “the battlefields of the war of independence” and “landing beaches” . “Our partnership with France actually the oldest ally of our nation” , he writes. Finally, he wishes “fair winds and calm seas” to the crew. In the audience, a young woman believes that Obama’s speech to Hermione, “it’s still the class’ .
Francois Hollande takes the mic . “Many of you have to want to live this historic day which marks the spirits in France and the United States” , he said, waving a “head of collective work” that “carries the message of the will, and freedom.” “If there were still skeptics, cynics, the blind, who claimed that it was futile to dream, this beautiful day was the best response that France could bring their” , he says . The head of state also pays tribute to Jean-Louis Frot, the former mayor of Rochefort and one of the main initiators of the project. Present, and widely applauded when François Hollande say his name. If the town of Rochefort gave a lot for the project, this is not the case of the State. The president apologized, saying the tone of the joke that his “presence” now ‘compensates’ …
While that he finished his speech (delivered later than expected) with the idea of a “plume” of France, spectators away. They are leaving the scene and that which is laid to be closer to the real star of the day, the Hermione, which is close to the horizon, followed by small boats. In the crowd, a young woman expected better: “It would have been nicer with sails. Maybe they will put them to return “. In the mid-amateur photographers who follow the path of the boat through the screen of their device, Arthur, 14, and his brother are playing cards. Their mother thinks they are “not necessarily aware of the event they live, with Hermione and with national personalities who came” . They still saw pass the “beautiful” boat. Further, a retired wonders “where she is, the Nao Victoria” , caravel symbol of Magellan. A ship will join Rochefort tomorrow, and that the inhabitants can admire until the summer.
Already, Hermione rushes into the estuary of the Charente, it goes back up Soubise before returning late in the afternoon. If the wind allows, a fireworks show will then take place before the departure of the frigate La Fayette towards its first stop, the Canary Islands.
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