When Jean Robic escaped on the Côte du Coeur-Volant, during the last stage of the Tour de France, the Nazis who occupied the manor house of the same name were no more than a bad memory in Marly-le-Roi, in the Yvelines. The France of Vincent Auriol is far from having healed all its wounds. A cold snap led to the rationing of bread, 200 grams per week. Strikes, which the new President of the Republic considered insurrectionary, shook Renault and the mines. The Communists left the ministries, pressed by a Marshall Plan that intended to rebuild Europe without their ideas. Sports had resumed, and CO Roubaix-Tourcoing was the French soccer champion. The intellectual life too, Camus publishes the Plague.
The Tour, traced as a path around the country to highlight its borders, offered a respite. Relaunched by the men at the helm of a new daily sports newspaper, L'Équipe, it was intended to be the symbol of a France back on track for prosperity. Paul Ramadier, President of the Council, urged deputies to lift gasoline rationing: "The Tour de France is three weeks of peace!"
So, in the "Saharan" heat that has not left the race since Marcel Cerdan gave the start at the Arc de Triomphe, France rolls up its sleeves. But to dance. She cheered for Jean Robic, known as "Biquet", this runner of Morbihan origin, from Radenac, who was driven to Paris by the Second World War to run and work. He promised Raymonde, who he married four days before the start of the race: "I am poor but I will give you the Tour de France."Winner of three stages, he did not put on a single yellow jersey. He still has this last day, between Caen and Paris, to make up for Raymonde. He attacked in Rouen, on the Bonsecours hill. Robic knew the Coeur-Volant because he often trained there, under the jersey of a club in Clamart. He took the right breakaway, grabbed the minutes that would give him eternity. When he takes off, the motorcycle followers warn the crowd that he will have enough of an advantage to win the Tour. Then the accordion catches its breath and France gets drunk on dancing.
PIERRE CALLEWAERT
