Statue Charles et Yvonne De Gaulle

At the foot of the watchtower, this statue represents the presidential couple from 1958 to 1969. It recalls the marriage of Charles de Gaulle and Yvonne Vendroux in the hometown of the First Lady of France.

Then a captain in the French army, Charles de Gaulle married Yvonne Vendroux in 1921. The civil ceremony was held on April 6 at the Calais town hall, and the religious sacrament the following day at the Notre Dame de Calais church. It was an important marriage on a local scale, the Vendroux family being an important family of entrepreneurs and notables from Calais.   

The City of Calais wanted to commemorate a happy event… which took on another dimension with the fate of Charles de Gaulle. This bronze statue dates from 2013 and is the work of Elisabeth Cibot. This Parisian sculptor has produced several works depicting personalities (Marshal Murat, President François Mitterrand, Chancellor Willy Brandt, Pope John Paul II in Lyon, etc.). The artist was inspired by a photo of the presidential couple on an official visit to Calais in 1959. Photos and documents of the presidential couple can be seen in the Charles and Yvonne de Gaulle room at the 1939-1945 Memorial Museum in Calais.  

To note that : Mrs. Yvonne de Gaulle-Vendroux looks in a specific direction. Her eyes are drawn to where her childhood home used to be, at the beginning of the 70th century. This residence was destroyed during the bombings of the Second World War. This district, which was the old medieval Calais, had been destroyed by almost XNUMX%.