Vic-Fezensac (France) (AFP)

"I am proud of you, my little one".

Traveling on Friday in his native Gers, Jean Castex offered himself a brief homecoming in his childhood town of Vic-Fezensac where we warmly welcomed the former playmate or classmate who became Prime Minister.

After a morning in Auch where he visited a vaccination center, the head of government was expected in the early afternoon in this city of 3,300 inhabitants where he was born in 1965.

A hundred people came to welcome him on the town hall square, and while waiting for the local child, everyone is going there with their anecdote dating from school, college or rugby club.

At the sports café, Jean-Paul and Roland remember the sixth-grade student "on whom they copied during their homework on the table".

"He was nice, but he must not have played rugby for long," jokes Jean-Paul.

At 3.30 p.m., the arrival of the Prime Minister was greeted with heavy applause.

In the crowd Renée, a sexagenarian, and her mother Marie explain that they were both housekeepers from the Castex family.

"I am proud of you, my little one! You are beautiful like your grandfather and your father", said Marie.

"You didn't have books about naked women, you", she launches to the Prime Minister who answers with a friendly nudge in the back: "what are you talking about there?"

Marie, very proud to have been invited to her wedding in Prades, confides that she does not go to bed before having turned on the television "to see her Prime Minister".

"When he was appointed Prime Minister, I cried," she says.

Among the inhabitants, two deputies to the mayor of Vic say that they were "Jean's classmates".

A schooling which the head of government remembers with emotion: "Vic's college was wonderful. I had a blast there! These four years at college ..."

In this county town, stronghold of the Castex family, the Prime Minister also found his father and sister who had made the trip to see him.

His father Claude, extremely moved, said he was "proud" to see his son "become head of government".

During his visit, the Prime Minister also unveiled a plaque in the name of his grandfather, Senator-Mayor Marc Castex.

Usually prudent in his expression, the Prime Minister did not shy away from his pleasure during this return to his roots, showing himself relaxed, with a word for everyone, and a "huge thank you" affixed in the guestbook of the city ​​"which taught me so much and gave me so much; this simple life, these values ​​which forge a man".

To journalists he assures him: "It was not written in advance that a child of Vic could one day occupy the Hotel Matignon! You must never forget, remain faithful and worthy of the education that you are given. This town of Vic has helped shape me ".

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