La Rochelle (AFP)

Charles Trenet's "Douce France", taken by Carte de Séjour, at Léo Ferré's "The memory and the sea", François Hollande told in songs at Francofolies of La Rochelle, Thursday, during a confession in public.

Five days after his surprise appearance on a stage of the Avignon festival, the former President of the Republic participated in this brand new meeting of the Francos, led by the journalist Eric Fottorino, in the Tower of the Chain in full heart from the city of La Rochelle.

"Le mémoire et la mer" by Léo Ferré was the first song chosen by François Hollande.

"Child, Ferré was unbearable to me," he said. "It was the very traditional song of the 50s that did not speak to me, but I discovered at 15, 16 + With the weather + which is one of the most beautiful, and I immediately discovered the poet, with + La memory and the sea +. "

"What does this song say, that the tide, the sea, always brings us back to our memories, I understood that this song would accompany me all my life, it leads to being responsible for its life, because we are always caught by the tide, "he explained.

From "Douce France", created by Trenet in 1947 and revisited in 1986 by Carte de Séjour, the group of the late Rachid Taha, disappeared last year, Mr. Hollande retained "the very strong message chanted by Taha: + us who We are not French, let us proclaim our attachment to France + It is the hymn to France which was thus taken again, with a very beautiful symbolic scope ".

"It means that an author writes a song at a certain time, in a certain context and that what will make the greatness of the song is that it will not only survive him but also marry other eras and be interpreted by artists who will give it a new meaning, "he said.

Surprising in his subsequent choices, more contemporary - "I asked the Moon" of Indochina, which he retained that "it's up to him to go to his star, his destiny", as he did for the presidential election of 2012, or "At the beginning" of Alex Beaupain which draws "a parallel between a life of couple and the political life" - the former leader also evoked "It is the night" of Michel Jonasz.

"The happiest and most tragic events are often at night, and at night it's also the time when you're really alone with yourself." Night is a part of life where everything is going to be played and during my tenure, there are many nights where I did not sleep, because I was aware that the story was happening, "he said.

© 2019 AFP