May 19, 1963 was a Sunday and the sun was bathing, with its bright rays, people and buildings in Thessaloniki. On the beach of the city – but also all the way from the airport to the center of the city, a human swarm had “taken over” the sidewalk next to the White Tower, patiently waiting for the procession with the distinguished visitor to pass in front, which did not he was none other than the then President of France, General de Gaulle.

An open limousine began to approach him White Tower to the cheers of an enthusiastic crowd waving Greek and French flags and chanting slogans such as “Long live de Gaulle!” and “Long live France!”, and two characteristic figures, that of the French President and the then Prime Minister Constantinos Karamanlis stood out, greeting the people before they arrived at the military club, at half past noon – according to strict protocol – to have lunch.

After the meal, General de Gaulle went to the Consulate General, where at the time it was housed in different facilities from the current ones, where he met French people living in Thessaloniki, while he then visited the Lyceum of the French Popular Mission, which was then functioning as a cultural center. There he was welcomed by the headmaster Mr Bron and the French President had the opportunity to chat with the staff as well as the French students. The next stop of his visit was the allied cemeteries of Zeitenlik, where are the graves of approximately 8,000 French soldiers who fell fighting on the Eastern Front, from 1916 to 1918, alongside their Greek, Serbian, British and Russian comrades-in-arms, in Zeitenlik he visited – among other things – the grave of Major Poirot de Chef du Bois (Poirot de Chef du Bois), his classmate at the War School, before making his way back to Paris.

General de Gaulle visited Greece from 16 to 19 May 1963, accompanied by his wife and then Foreign Minister Couve de Murville, and on the map of this visit he also put Thessaloniki, recognizing its special importance, as was emphasized at the reception given, on Friday evening, at the French Institute of Thessaloniki, by the French ambassador to Greece Patrick Maisonnave and the consul general and director of the French Institute Sandrine Mouchet.

The consul general welcomed all those present to this special event for General de Gaulle’s visit to Thessaloniki and the “Lyce” 60 years ago and the ambassador spoke about its historical context as well as its symbolism and high politics importance. As, after all, the then French ambassador in Greece wrote, General de Gaulle’s visit was completed in the middle of a deposition, with this short but intense passage from Thessaloniki. While the press of the time refers to the particularly warm welcome given to him by the citizens of Thessaloniki.

Among other things, the French ambassador referred to the enormous international prestige of de Gaulle in the early 60s. “He is the man – symbol of June 18, 1940, of the resistance against the Nazi occupation, the head of free France. It embodies, as Andre Malraux would later write, if you allow me, the no “from the first moment”. Additionally, in 1963, the general is one of the last living figures to resist Nazism. Stalin had died 10 years earlier, Eisenhower had lost the 1960 election to a certain J. F. Kennedy and Churchill, weakened, has practically retired from politics. General de Gaulle is then 73 years old and has taken the reins of France again five years ago, endowing the French Republic with institutions that remain strong to this day”, he emphasized.

He pointed out that “in order to understand the impact of the General’s visit to Greece, we must therefore take into account the conditions. With the erection of the Berlin Wall two years earlier and the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, the world came close to nuclear annihilation. At this particular moment in Greece, when the Civil War was still fresh in the collective memory and a few days after the assassination of Lambrakis on May 22, Greece expects from General de Gaulle words of friendship and solidarity, words that first of all reassure. This is what De Gaulle did – as the French ambassador pointed out – saying on May 18, in Parliament that “… it is necessary for countries that share common spiritual values ​​and face the same threats to have strong ties in order to ensure peace. This is the noble purpose of the Atlantic Alliance, to which Greece and France intend to remain faithful. The confirmation of France’s loyalty to the Alliance means, as far as we are concerned, Greeks and French, that in the event of any aggressive action against the country, France would immediately be at your side with all the means at her disposal.” A day later, in fact, in Thessaloniki, he said that “your defense is also ours”.

“The trip to Greece and especially to the north of the country is engraved in the memory of General de Gaulle, who often refers to the strategic character of the region both for the economy and for defense. I believe that he laid the foundations of the French policy towards Greece that continues to this day”, the French ambassador said in his speech, pointing out that “just as all the French are aware of what Western civilization owes to Greece, so the Greeks also recognize the decisive support of France to Greece and its people during the period of the dictatorship, the integration of Greece into the European community and later into the eurozone, during the Greek debt crisis until the signing of the strategic partnership in 2021”.

Mr. Mezonav concluded his speech with some of the words of General de Gaulle in front of the Greek Parliament – “Thanks to their mutual friendship, Greece and France are, more than ever, loyal to their history. They further contribute to the development of Europe and the defense of the free world, paving the way for faith and hope” – and the wish that these will continue to inspire the relationship between our two peoples.

Video with the historic visit and stories of the Thessalonians who experienced it

At the end of the evening, a video – produced by the French Institute of Thessaloniki on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of de Gaulle’s visit to the city and the Lyceum – was shown, where – among others – three residents of Thessaloniki shared their memories of the French president’s visit.

David Saltiel, president of the Central Jewish Council and the Jewish Community of Thessaloniki, recalled the emotion he felt as a Lyceum student receiving from the hands of the general an award for his good school performance, as well as three French books tied with ribbons in the colors of the French flag, Theofano Papazisi, professor emeritus of the AUTH School of Law, referred to how she and her classmates cheered and applauded de Gaulle, but also to the impression made by his imposing figure and height (he was close to two meters!), while Stavros Kamaroudis, a professor at the Pedagogical Department of the University of Western Macedonia, in Florina, recounted how he called out to him the only French words he knew at the age of just 7 – un, deux trois (one, two three) – with De Gaulle patting his head and praising him for the effort, himself continuing the count to six.

For the organization of the production of the video with the three interviews, the historical footage from the ERT archive and the historical photographic material from the archive of the French Institute were taken care of by consul general Sadrin Mousset and the communication officer Vaso Koidou, while the other contributors are as follows : direction/camera: Costas Amoiridis, subtitles: Alain Ardi, Ioanna Oikonomou, Michalis Pelamidis, sound: Dimitris Papanastasiou, editing: Stefania Dokou and graphics: Thanasis Georgiou/designmono.