For more than three weeks, every day until July 29, from the final preparations for the Grand Départ of the Tour de France to the final finish on the Champs-Élysées, the gendarmerie is the guest of Ouest-France through this series titled the Guardians of the Tour.
Well, that's an idea that curious readers of the gendarmerie and interested in it could remember: the national gendarmerie is present on earth (that, we know just about all), on sea (the maritime gendarmes were engaged on the harbor of Brest on July 12, it had already been written), but that's not all. It is also present on rivers (there are 14 brigade fluvial gendarmerie including one in Valencia, where will arrive the riders the day after tomorrow). It is present more and more on the rails, with patrols of gendarmes in uniform or incognito on board trains. And it is present - it is the object of today's paper - in the air, thanks to the helicopter maneuvers of the specialized gendarmes!
One hundred trades
There are therefore a hundred trades - probably more in reality - to carry on as a gendarmerie. Believe me, including from the inside, we discover almost every day new ones. It's pretty amazing. I allow myself to write it because who knows if tomorrow a little man or little good woman who would have read this chronicle will not say to her parents: "That's it I know, I want to play helico po po po po " (for amateurs, nod to Boby Lapointe).
This p'tit or this p'tiote would be a valuable reinforcement, because helicos gendarmerie are widely used throughout the year, to rescue people injured, search for missing persons, track criminals or conduct operations of monitoring. To secure the Tour too, which is more in the mountains!
Two Saint Cyrians in the air
"We did a month ago with the prefect, by helicopter, an integral recognition of the day's stage between Albertville and La Rosière, says Colonel Machac, commander of the gendarmerie group of Savoy. The goal was to identify potential bottlenecks in the passage of the race in climbs. With the helicopter, we really better understand the areas where the public will gather. At Col du Cormet de Roselend for example, we immediately saw the need to specifically frame the crowd, which will be particularly tight given the configuration of places.
Two anecdotes on this occasion. The first is that the prefect of Savoy - who will forgive me I hope for the needs of the ticket, to have googled (I checked in the dictionary, this word exists) - has been in the years 1990 section chief of a battalion of alpine hunters. So in the helicopter, side gendarme as prefect side, we observed the mountain in connoisseurs! The other anecdote, moreover, is that the prefect and the colonel of gendarmerie have both done the same school, the military special school of Saint-Cyr, the school of the officers of the Army Each year, about fifteen outgoing men can choose the gendarmerie.
New flyovers today
"I asked the Modane-based gendarmerie detachment to fly again today , " Colonel Machac said. "There, it is no longer a reconnaissance maneuver of the course, but an intelligence maneuver. The objective is to check for example that no event likely to block the Tour is preparing on the route. "
During the stage itself, the helicopter is also engaged. It can for example help guide the gendarmes on the ground, making them benefit from images shot live by the helicopter and sent in real time on their tablets or their smartphones. It can also, if necessary, to put here or there reinforcements gendarmes on the route.
Emergency relief for people in the mountains
Still, helicopters gendarmerie systematically share the month of July with another mission, essential, except Tour de France: emergency relief to people in the mountains. It happened however, sadly, we remember, that this rescue mission is taking place on the same road of the Tour de France. And for my part, in 1995, from the height of my almost 10 years, to think back to this gendarmerie helicopter, taking off from the descent of the Portet d'Aspet towards the hospital of Tarbes, with, on board, the body soon declared dead without Fabio Casartelli.
Jean-Baptiste Verrier is a 32-year-old "civilian", a novice of the National Gendarmerie, whom he joined a few months ago. Through "Guardians of the Tour", he makes us discover this institution "from the inside", at the same time that he discovers it himself.