Bar-le-Duc. A day in the footsteps of Raymond Poincaré in the Meuse

"A deputy has just been born." These are the words reportedly spoken by the obstetrician at the birth of Raymond Poincaré, on August 28, 1860, on Rue Nève in Bar-le-Duc. He was born into a bourgeois family. His father was a civil engineer, and his mother was the daughter of a former deputy.

Our day in his footsteps begins in front of his house. A plaque is affixed. "He deserved it from his country." When we pass through the door of what is now the city's urban planning department, we discover a changed building, "but one that respects the distribution of the walls of the time," explains Carole Andrieux, our guide.

"The staircase is original," she smiles, "here, the living room, with the period parquet flooring too," even if it should "soon be changed." From his childhood, we also know that he often played with a little boy from the same street, to whom he was very close. Raymond Poincaré was baptized at the Saint-Antoine church, where he took his communion in 1871.

He studied between 1867 and 1876 – except in 1870, when he went into exile in Dieppe because of the Franco-Prussian War – at the Imperial High School in Bar-le-Duc, built in 1854, as Gilles-de-Trèves could no longer accommodate as many students. It was not until 1935 that the high school took the name Poincaré. The President's school reports indicate that he was "very reserved" and that he had "difficulty communicating."

In 1912, to prepare for the possibility of another war, Poincaré ran for president, defeating Gaston Pams, whom he defeated 483 votes to 196. "Honest, not really weakened, but not a war leader." This is what will be remembered of him. Raymond Poincaré was not comfortable at the Élysée. He felt "imprisoned" there.

On April 20, 1913, a large celebration was held in his honor in Bar-le-Duc. He returned in August to inaugurate the hospital in the Notre-Dame district. A triumphal arch was erected for the occasion.

Our journey continues past the current post office. A year after its reconstruction in 1926, Raymond Poincaré described it as a "sumptuous and useless palace, made large and ugly."

In front of the station stands a statue in his honor. Unveiled in 1950 by Vincent Auriol, the bronze statue was created by a sculptor specializing in large-scale works.

Raymond Poincaré established a second home in Sampigny, which was destroyed during the First World War. The village suffered this, since it was not located on the front lines, but its destruction was a powerful symbol; Raymond Poincaré had it rebuilt at his own expense and donated it to the town upon his death. Today, it serves as his museum. He was eventually buried in Nubécourt, alongside his wife.