ABSTRACT
In the 1950s, while holding a press conference, Charles de Gaulle asked the assembled journalists, "There was once someone called Pierre Laval. The clear implication was that Laval, like Vichy, was either irrelevant or had never really existed. Mitterand sent no flowers to Laval's grave. It is a simple slab in the Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris bearing only the names and dates of birth and death of Laval and his wife Jeanne. Laval had ascended to the highest posts his nation could offer. Rene de Chambrun achieved great success as a lawyer and in business as chairman of Cristalleries Baccarat. But the passion of his long and active life was the defence of the reputation and the memory of Laval whom he revered. Vichy is the mistress who lived in the shadows, in the back streets, but who had shared bed and board, whose intimacy was as unquestioned as it was unsanctified.
