Emmanuel Macron: his night in La Rotonde

In the brewery of Montparnasse, Macron celebrates his victory. Celebrities, many activists, the polemic swells. Tale of an extravagant evening.

In the afternoon of Sunday, the day of the first round of the presidential election, “Mrs. Macron” phone to “Mr. Serge”, the director of La Rotonde. On her benches of garnet velvet illuminated by the milky light of the art deco chandeliers, her husband candidate will celebrate this evening the sleeve won at the beard of the big parties. They fit a simplified, four-course card. All light. Emmanuel will take ham with muslin asparagus. The bill, says Brigitte Macron, will be settled by the movement, and not counted in the accounts of the campaign. Mr. Serge is not surprised that the winner of April 23 chooses his sign, “Mr. Macron” had evoked it a few weeks ago. If everything went well, he had said to her one evening when she left him, Is in this restaurant where he likes to dine for ten years one-on-one with his wife that he would come. And then, Apollinaire , the pillar of La Rotonde, as Cocteau, Lenin, and Picasso were , did he not write that he savored here the “asylum of beautiful and free simplicity”? It looks like Macron, Macron when inspired.
At dinner time, in the brewery where Francois Hollande celebrated his victory at the Socialist Primary in 2011 – a time when the Socialist Party believed the primaries were a formidable American import – the hall is deserted. The Parisians are in front of their television set. Romain Goupil, the filmmaker and ex-agitator of May 68, takes a drink at the Select on the same sidewalk with his old accomplice Dany Cohn-Bendit, Macron’s official support. Dany sent a text message to Emmanuel: “Where are we tonight?” “At La Rotonde,” he replied. The two sexagenarians joined the brewery where they were aware that Leon Trostki, who was their idol, held his conspiracy meetings. Since then, Sandrine Kiberlain likes to take the sun, Sitting on the circular terrace. On the ground floor, Cohn-Bendit and Goupil find three tables of customers who came late supper.

It is the bazaar, everyone enters, greets, kisses.
Then, towards 10 pm, disembark “helpers”, “walkers”, the noisy little band of the most engaged militants. They are 10, 30, soon 150. “Downstairs is the bazaar, everyone enters, greets each other, kisses,” says Goupil. On the first floor, family members are seated. “Attali is downstairs,” notes the artist, who remains only thirty minutes. At 10:30 pm, Mr. Serge received orders. He privatized “for security reasons”. Ten people busy themselves in the kitchen, fifteen in the dining room. Stéphane Bern, the TV and radio host, received a text message at the end of the afternoon, written by an Emmanuel’s assistant. The RTL journalist had planned to dine with “foolish friends”, but now, the turning time, he feels that the agape will be more cheerful at La Rotonde. “This evening is anything but bling-bling. There are three poor radishes there, and croque-monsieur cut in four, no flonflon. An evening of friends who live an important moment, it was humble. And then it’s funny that it is the canteen of Éric Zemmour! “He smiled, glad to have met the three children of Brigitte and their spouses, as well as the mother of Emmanuel and his brother.

Gérard Collomb, mayor of Lyon, enjoys a sole with Richard Ferrand and Sylvain Fort, all pillars of the campaign. Bettina Rheims and her husband, business lawyer Jean-Michel Darrois, voting in Normandy, are absent. As is missing the communicating Robert Zarader. He worked and the next day did not answer the question of whether this Parisian leap in the evening of a first round was a fault of taste. Marc Ferracci, the professor of economics, and his wife, Sophie, the historical head of Emmanuel’s cabinet, two real friends, are of course. Erik Orsenna comes in sneakers, François Berléand, Pierre Arditi and the architect Roland Castro. Line Renaud, the Chiraquian friend whose television cameras shoot through the windows the white mane, presents itself. Has she been invited?

I do not understand the controversy.
“Emmanuel has planned an evening of thanks of the teams, certainly not a night of victory,” explains Marc Ferracci, who only drinks mineral water. It is evidence that when the candidate gave a brief speech to thank his teams, there was no sound. But were Line Renaud, Arditi, Berléand invited? That could be a crushing thing, because what can we celebrate when the National Front finds itself, once again, in the second round of a presidential election? Macron’s staff pleaded the overflow. “Six celebrities who are close friends of the couple have come to La Rotonde. Big deal ! It does not make a fiesta people, “says Aurore Bergé, the ex-juppeist, who did not pass to the brewery, too busy with the television sets.
On the other hand, security officers, drivers, secretaries and their families are duly invited. “I do not understand the controversy. We needed a moment together, all of them have given so much for a year. About 1:30, Emmanuel Macron came out talking to the cloud of cameras rushed to the sidewalk of Montparnasse. “It was my heart’s moment. You have not understood anything about life. I have no lesson to receive from the Parisian milieu, “he slammed. A moment of the heart … The man who could be elected in thirteen days eighth president of the Fifth Republic has, moreover, put a few minutes before his guests on guard: “The road is long. Besides the fact that it was meteorically short, his first turn at the corner of Rue Vavin and Boulevard Montparnasse n ‘ Will not have been the most judicious. In fact, the road is long.