STORY
The musée du quai Branly in Paris, the main cultural heritage left by Jacques Chirac, was born of an unexpected meeting on a beach in the Indian Ocean. At the microphone of Europe 1, Jean-Pierre Elkabbach, unexpected witness of this scene, tells how the friendship between Jacques Chirac and the collector Jacques Kerchache gave birth to one of the greatest museums of the world dedicated to the cultures and the non arts Western.
The scene takes place in 1990. The Chirac couple spend their holidays on Mauritius. The journalist Jean-Pierre Elkabbach and his wife are also on vacation. At the time, Jacques Chirac is in the trough of the wave, his career seems to have stopped since his defeat in the presidential election of 1988. Some say even politically dead. When an admirer seeks to be present ...
"We were on a beach in Mauritius, in the Indian Ocean, I was with Nicole Avril, my wife, Jacques Chirac was not far away, he read books on prehistory, he made cards, he was highlighting on the beach.
A stranger ... in a swimsuit
And then someone came to us. We were all in jersey. 'Can you introduce me to Jacques Chirac? You are a journalist, you must know him. ' I hesitate. I am going to see Jacques Chirac, who says to me: 'Leave me alone. I'm on vacation, I do not want to see anyone! ' At that moment, Bernadette said to him: 'But Jacques, it is perhaps one of ours. See it. '
I'm going to find the unknown. And this person said to him: 'Thank you for what you are doing for France, for the city of Paris. But I also want to thank you because I saw in Paris Match , on two pages, the photo of your office, with my book on it! ' Chirac answers him: 'No, there is nothing on my desk.' 'Yes, you have my book.' Chirac takes it by the shoulders, shakes it: 'There is no book! There is only one. It is Jacques Kerchache, African Art . And the other one answers him: 'It's me Kerchache.' Then they fell into each other's arms, kissed each other.
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The Quai Branly, a dream drawn on the sand
From there, every night, for a week, we had dinner together. They spoke of African tribes, empires who had sold their peoples into slavery. And Jacques Kerchache drew him on the sand, day after day, what was to be the museum of the primitive arts.
At first, they are disputed because Chirac said he wanted a museum of primitive arts. 'No Jacques, a museum of first art!' And little by little, we went to what has become the musée du quai Branly. Erasing the drawing he had made on the sand, Kerchache had told him: 'For that, you must be President of the Republic!' "