Liberation of Agde 80 years ago: when André Bordères raised the French flag on top of the power plant

During the occupation of Agde, André Bordères had gone to Aveyron to work. COLLECTION CLEOPHAS

Climbing the chimney, which was over 20 m high, was risky to say the least. COLLECTION CLEOPHAS

L'entrée dans la cheminée (aujourd'hui bouchée) s'effectuait par une petite ouverture. COLLECTION CLEOPHAS

Son ami Georges Cléophas revient sur cet épisode cocasse de la Libération d’Agde.

What could have been going through André Bordères' head on Sunday, August 20, 1944?? While the German soldiers had barely left the city in total disorganization, the man who was not yet the prosperous business leader he later became, undertook to climb the long chimney of the old electrical plant – today the Bishops' Mill – to proudly plant the French flag at its summit.

A dangerous solo climb

An idea like any other when you're 18, not without risks according to his friend Georges Cléophas.“Climbing the chimney through the bars was really dangerous. You entered through a small opening, you had to turn around and hoist yourself up. Above all, he was alone, which also explains why we don't have any pictures of his “climb”. If he had fallen, who would have found him there? ? In any case, it looked just like him.”

Because André Bordères, who died just two years ago, was not the calmest young man of his generation, far from it. A strong character that served him well during his political career – First elected to the Agde municipal council in 1965, under the Lapeyre municipality, he was also a deputy and deputy senator for Hérault, regional councilor and several times assistant to Régis Passerieux – but who sometimes played tricks on him. That day, he escaped unscathed and Agde remembered him as the one who raised the French flag on the day the Germans left.

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