Upper Country. Did you know that "space pedestrian" Alexei Leonov dined in Audun-le-Tiche?

Who remembers the Audun-le-Tiche banquet? Not just any banquet: the official banquet of April 24, 1966, given in honor of cosmonaut Alexei Leonov? It took place at the Hôtel de la Poste. Who were the guests? Where did the Soviet procession sleep afterward? We'd love to know. Because at the time, Le Républicain Lorrain was enthusiastic about the arrival of the "space pedestrian." Alexei Leonov was the first man to walk into space, a year earlier. On March 18, 1965, he floated in the cosmos for 12 minutes, attached by a tether to his Voskhod 2 capsule. For the USSR, it was glory, four years after Yuri Gagarin's flight, even if this spacewalk almost turned into tragedy.

On April 24, the journalist spoke of a "triumphant welcome" in the Pays-Haut . He noted in his columns that "the grand banquet brought together 150 people." One can easily imagine the Soviet delegation, around the cosmonaut hero. The press reported the presence of "two generals, two embassy secretaries" and many other representatives. Also count three to four translators. Opposite, one can guess the entire French assembly: the mayors of the Pays-Haut, the elected officials, the entire municipal council of Audun-le-Tiche no doubt.

Alexei Leonov arrived in Lorraine late on April 24th. He started in Longuyon around noon, before continuing on to Longlaville, where an afternoon banquet awaited them (the entire procession was running late). After this first meal, he held a rally. From which the press retained this sentence: "My trip to France would not have been complete if I had not been able to meet the workers of Lorraine." A speech, a bit of driving, and there he was at 6 p.m. in Villerupt, to be made an honorary citizen. Ceremony, petits fours, and toasts.

We don't imagine him before 8 p.m. at the Audun-le-Tiche banquet. The next day, April 25, Alexei Leonov's final stops in Lorraine: Trieux, where the miners offered him lamps, then the Soviet necropolis of Valleroy, and finally Auboué. He signed the guestbook there, as he did everywhere, and gave his name to the municipal park.

For its part, Longlaville, grateful, will name a municipal hall in his honor.

What do all these towns have in common? They're all at the heart of the Lorraine steel industry—in the French state of Texas, yes. And all run by communist mayors.

Sixty years later, there is no Leonov Street in Audun-le-Tiche. Some of the guests, among the youngest at the time, can perhaps still testify. What had Leonov told them? One thing is certain. His fame proved fleeting. Three years later, on July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon , and the space race was lost to the USSR.