Paris (AFP)

Here, "I want everyone to have fun," Véronique Cabut told AFP while browsing the exhibition devoted to Paris to her husband, Cabu, who died in the jihadist attack on Charlie Hebdo, where we find his office " in brothel ", his blue and black Citroën Trèfle and his laughter that echoes in places.

"The greatest thing that will perpetuate the memory of Cabu is the laughter of visitors. Under the masks, laughter must dawn. It is the remedy for barbarism", insists the quavering voice, Véronique Cabut, in front of the exhibition "le Rire de Cabu" which opens Friday at the Paris town hall until December 19.

However, the atmosphere is heavy.

The (free) exhibition, initially planned for the spring, was postponed to the fall due to confinement and is being held at the same time as the trial at the assizes which judges, since September 2, fourteen people suspected of providing logistical support to the authors attacks.

A coincidence that forced the mayor of Paris to strengthen its security.

"It is an additional pressure which requires us to be up to the talent that we have lost", slips Jean-François Pitet, curator of the exhibition and friend of Cabu, assassinated on January 7, 2015, a few days of his 77th birthday.

In total, there are 350 drawings, some of which are unpublished, on which Cabu sketched France, its presidents, its celebrities and its women.

- Pacifist -

Upon entering, the visitor comes face to face with the reconstructed office of the designer.

"We discover Cabu's mess," smiles his wife modestly.

There are stacked white sheets of paper, press drawings, India ink, jars of gouache, glue, a trash can in which his wife has unearthed unpublished sketches, a bundle of newspapers, "because he was also a journalist, "recalls Véronique Cabut.

And everywhere, messages: "No limit to the humor which is at the service of expression" or "one is never disappointed when one calls on intelligence".

Cabu "drew constantly, he was always in the following drawing", confides Jean-François Pitet.

We discover his great characters, his drawn reports, his publications on his return from Algeria, where he was mobilized between 1958 and 1960, his drawings at the Club Dorothée, at the Canard Enchaîné, in the magazine Pilote, his television shows and his fights " for ecology, freedom of expression, pacifism ".

Because "there was no more pacifist than Cabu", assures his wife.

This freedom brandished since 1972, in a drawing where we can read: "We can no longer laugh with veterans, cancer patients, women, Arabs, PD, deaf people, foxes, cuckolds, the disabled".

- "A winning team" -

"The entire Charlie Hebdo team makes it a point of honor to defend freedom of expression," recalls a sign, not far from the cover of the satirical weekly which has earned him many threats: "Mohammed overwhelmed by fundamentalists, it's hard to be loved by idiots ".

"The idiots are fundamentalists, not Muslims," ​​insists Ms. Cabut.

Above, overlook Cabu's press cards.

Those of 2014 and 2015, arrived after his death.

A few weeks before the attack, Cabu met François Hollande, then President of the Republic, at the Elysee Palace.

An exchange filmed and broadcast in the exhibition, where we hear the cartoonist advising the president: "do not lose your humor (...) You will always have intelligent people with you if you make them laugh".

"As you say + It's hard to be loved by idiots + but it's also hard to be loved by intelligent people", replied the socialist, under the bursts of laughter from Cabu.

The exhibition ends by paying homage to the "friends" who fell under the bullets with him: on a drawing several meters long and high, we discover the drafting table with the whole team.

Below, the visitor finds "a drawing of Maris, a drawing of Honoré sur Cabu, a drawing of Cabu sur Honoré, the same with Tignous, with Charb and his great friend Wolinski", recalls Jean-François Pitet.

And this word: "You don't change a winning team."

© 2020 AFP