The President of the French Republic, Paul Deschanel, boarded the presidential train at about nine thirty in the evening on May 23, 1920 from the Gare de Lyon station in Paris, heading to Montbriçon, to attend the inauguration of the monument there after about 24 hours.

On that day the presidential train kept moving all night, and no one noticed the disappearance of the president, who asked not to be disturbed, while the head of state, after falling from his cabin window, was "caught" by a railway worker who at first thought he was a drunk He claims to be the president.

sudden fall

According to a joint report between Frederic Luino and Gwendolyn dos Santos, the French magazine Le Point said that the president left the "hall room" and went to the small room prepared for him, and asked his servant to leave its windows closed despite the intense heat because he felt some cold, then took a pill. A drug for sleeping, and he gave instructions not to wake him up before seven in the morning, but a suffocating heat woke him up an hour later, so he decided to open one of the two windows that open downward to give the president the opportunity to shake hands with the people who come to wait for him at the stations without having to get off the train.

Deschanel lowered the lower part of the window and tried to raise the upper part of it, but he did not obey him, so he pushed it hard, and the window suddenly rose, and he fell outside the train that was moving slowly, so the president fell on a ground covered with grass, which fortunately eased his collision with the ground, so he stood staggering on his feet, and headed towards A light he saw away at a time when the train disappeared from view.

At this time, the railway worker Andre Radu was walking along the path back from a construction site he was supervising, and he saw a man walking hesitantly, and when he approached him he surprised him that blood was on his face, and that he was wearing light gray pajamas, and his feet are barefoot, and he thought a drunk person, and shouted at him "Who's moving there?"

The stranger replied, "I'm Mr. Deschanel," he thought, "You mean the president. Why didn't you say you were an alien from a flying saucer?"

The train kept moving all night without anyone noticing the disappearance of the French president, who asked not to be disturbed (Al Jazeera - expressive)

the wounded president

When the railroad worker saw the man wounded in the face, he took him to the house of the janitor Dario for treatment, saying, "This wounded man says he is Mr. Deschanel. He may be delirious." Nevertheless, Dario's wife began to clean Deschanel's wounds, while Radu went to inform the gendarme Corbell. , passing by Dr. Guimo to come to examine the injured, as he informed the Montargues station that "a man calling himself Mr. Deschanel fell off the presidential train," but the station did not send the message to the deputy governor until five in the morning.

Meanwhile, the doorman and his wife had put the president to sleep in their bed, and Dr. Guimo had confirmed to everyone's astonishment that he had indeed President Deschanel, so that the Deputy Governor of Montargues came in the morning to the small house to take him to his residence, to receive a tetanus injection.

The president thanked his hosts warmly before leaving, and the doorman's wife, who hosted him, told the press, "I knew he was a gentleman because he had clean feet."

empty bed

Meanwhile, the presidential train kept moving all night, without anyone noticing the president's disappearance, who asked not to be disturbed. It's Mr. Deschanel who fell off the presidential train."

The man could not believe what he was reading, so he thought first that a passenger had fallen and impersonated the president, but he entered all the cabins and checked all the windows, and found all 53 passengers in their places.

Only Deschanel's room remained, but the inspector did not dare to knock on its door, so the train left the station, but a new telegram in Rouen confirmed that the president had already fallen, and then Deschanel's servant and the private secretary dared to knock on his cabin door, then they entered and discovered the empty bed and the open window.

A wave of ridicule

The Deputy Governor of Montargues hastened to inform Paris, so Millerand, the chairman of the board, and Deschanel's wife took the express train, and the president was returned to the Elysee in the same evening. She turned the president into a madman, and behind them all France echoed, "He hasn't forgotten his pajamas. It's amazing."

The terrible campaign ended - as the authors say - with the psychological destruction of the fragile Deschanel, especially since his election to the presidency a few months ago led to his transition from a state of intense excitement to a state of post-election calm, suggesting the typical behavior of neurasthenia.

However, the craziest rumors were those that spread in Paris to say that he bathed in the basins of the Elysee Palace with ducks, and those that said that he was signing official documents in the name of Vercingetorix (a Gaul leader executed in 46 BC in prison during the reign of Julius Caesar) or Napoleon Bonaparte These are baseless rumors, the authors say.

The craziest rumors were the ones that spread in Paris and say that Deschanel bathes in the basins of the Elysee Palace with ducks (the island)

Severe depression

The train accident that President Deschanel suffered from caused severe depression, he was no longer able with him to preside over major celebrations such as the July 14 celebration, and he no longer felt able to perform his task, so he submitted his resignation for the first time a few weeks after his fall, but Milleran was able to carry him on He withdrew it, spent the summer in Rambouillet in order to recuperate, and could no longer sign the documents presented to him, and could not afford them.

He tendered his resignation for the second time on September 21, writing to the National Assembly that "my state of health no longer permits me to assume the highest positions in which you have given me your confidence" and then retired to a health center in Ruel, before recovering and being elected senator on January 9, 1921 in the First round, he died of pleurisy (inflammation of the pleura, the membrane that covers the lungs and lines the inner chest cavity) on April 28, 1922.