Series they made Montpellier shine. Professor Jacques Bringer: “In 1965, the city was growing and booming”

Jacques Bringer in the council room of the historic medical faculty. Under the gaze of his illustrious peers. Free Midi – GIACOMO ITALIANO

Starting this Friday, April 12 and for eight weeks, we invite you to discover or rediscover, every Friday, one of its personalities, each in their field, who has contributed to today's Montpellier. #39;today: his portrait, his journey, his view of the City before and what it has become. Let's go with Jacques Bringer, professor of medicine and former dean of the faculty of medicine. 

Professor of diabetology, former dean of the faculty of medicine, member of the National Academy of Medicine and those of sciences and letters of the city, he& ;nbsp;evokes his white coat Montpellier.

"I have no regrets or nostalgia for its evolution", assures him Jacques Bringer. When the professor of diabetology, member of the National Academy of Medicine and former dean of the Faculty of Medicine (from 2008 to 2016) speaks about Montpellier (*). On this town in which this son of the Gévaudan country arrived in the mid-sixties.

"A very cosmopolitan atmosphere"

"In 1965, the city was growing and bustling with the arrival of the pieds noirs. Between 1962 and 1965, twenty thousand people had to be accommodated in a town of one hundred and twenty thousand inhabitants. Today, this would be equivalent to fifty thousand people welcomed over a year. The mayor at the time, François Delmas, had a very rapid construction policy to house them. However, Montpellier was no longer a sleeping beauty. The black feet brought a dynamic and youthfulness which was an essential launching pad. We owe it to François Delmas to have taken on this very difficult task"

Then a young applicant then a carabin, Jacques Bringer remembers this change in’scale, as much numerary as sociological and ethnographic. "The’ The atmosphere was dynamic and cosmopolitan. Even the university benefited from this with the arrival of French people from Algeria. Very quickly, in the lecture hall, I met this community. It was an opening. Moreover, I kept relationships from the first year who remain among my best friends today. Then there was Georges Frêche."

With, closely intertwined, this truism: the Montpellier of Jacques Bringer is therefore, still today, in resonance with the Hippocratic corpus and its modern meaning . This in the light of eight hundred years of shared history between the city and the medicinal art.

"It’is a work that counts for a dean…"

"Medicine was integrated into university projects from 1961 with the construction of the biology institute (at the bottom of Boulevard Henri IV, Editor's note). Then, in 1971, with the Nîmes branch of the medical faculty which became that of Montpellier-Nîmes. Again in 1981 with a branch on the Arnaud-de-Villeneuve campus thanks to Dean Solassol. And, of course, with the State-region plan contract. Georges Frêche supported the project for a new faculty on the Arnaud-de-Villeneuve site. I had the chance to benefit from it when I was dean. He then proposed to me to build, in addition to the historic site, a site adapted to the modernity of the training."

Where the points of view and designs of the two men will come together. And allow, in fact, to pursue this common ambition with a bang. "We proposed a project worked intergenerationally to answer questions of modern training. Very quickly, he accepted and asked me to accompany him to Harvard to see the simulation technology platforms. Then, he had the budgets voted for the Region and the faculty opened in 2017. It is a work that counts for a dean…"

Then Jacques Bringer draws up this observation: "If today Montpellier is well positioned in several rankings (from Shanghai, Reuters, Editor's note) we owe it to this grouping. And that, for the city, is fundamental! If this had not been done, today faced with competition from Toulouse and Marseille, we would have difficulties".

"A city that does not allow single women to go out in the evening in complete safety…"

Just as important in his eyes: "The new faculty, the Balard center for chemistry, the faculty of letters. Everything that is built or will open, we owe it to the State-Region plan launched by Nicolas Sarkozy. This is what allowed Montpellier this ability to remodel itself. And I believe that we can be satisfied with the evolution of the city. It is also very well equipped in terms of sport. All sports are represented there and it's quite emblematic.

So no remorse. Reproaches despite everything. "We still have traffic problems ! I regret that there was no major peripheral worthy of the name." But still : & quot; Today, a city that does not allow single women to go out in the evening in complete safety is still a city that poses a problem. I told Michaël Delafosse before his election.

An attachment finally: the Place de La Canourgue. "Of exceptional beauty and environment." But also, "the faculty square and that of the cathedral, absolutely unique at sunset. And then, of course, the Jardin des Plantes and its four hectares. Paul Valéry said: When you walk in Peyrou you think you're a prince and, at the Jardin des Plantes, it's to soak up the history of Montpellier. And I believe that's true."

(*) He is also a member of the Academy of Sciences and Letters of Montpellier in chair number five of the medicine section, previously occupied by Professor André Pagès and by Montpellier professor Jean-Gabriel Pous, one of the world leaders of the 70s and 80s in the field of pediatric surgery.

In this photo, taken in 2008, no less than four deans pose together: Jacques Bringer (2008-2016), Jean-Pierre Touchon (2000-2008), Claude Solassol (1984-2000) and Pierre Rabischong (1979-1981). Faculty of Medicine of Montpellier

The 1960s: Modern medicine was then practiced on the Saint-Charles site, at the foot of the Écusson.

Professor Fourcade presents the new forensic medicine service at the Gui-de-Chauliac hospital, June 1, 1970. Free Midday

With the new faculty, Montpellier university medicine enters the 21st century. Midi Libre – D.S.

Inaugurated on October 12, 2017, the new site gives pride of place to simulation in the training curriculum. Midi Libre – J.-M. MART

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