Speech by the Mayor of Ramatuelle in tribute to Paul Magès (1999)

In this document

Opening of the speech

The text opens with the title: "Speech for the mass celebrated in memory of Paul MAGES on Saturday 30 October 1999" p. 3. The Mayor of Ramatuelle addresses the family and friends of Andrée and Paul Magès, evoking his shared "sorrow" and his dual capacity as mayor and friend of the couple p. 3.

He situates the starting point of his account: "It was 23 years ago, it was a November evening", during a visit made with his first deputy Fernand Vié to the Mas de Cybèle, the residence of the Magès couple p. 3.

The proposal to join the municipal council

The following p. 1 describes the peaceful atmosphere of the couple that evening, then the moment when the mayor proposes to Paul Magès to join the municipal team to represent the Pampelonne district. Magès accepts "immediately", with the immediate support of Andrée. The speech specifies that Magès then served "during his twelve years of mandate, as municipal councillor then deputy mayor" p. 1 — a mandate that can be situated precisely thanks to the list of members of the municipal council of Ramatuelle since 6 March, which attests to his election as municipal councillor in 1977 then his accession to the position of 2nd deputy mayor in 1983.

The engineer's contribution to the municipality

Page 2 highlights his role as a link between the new retirees settled in Ramatuelle and the long-time inhabitants, as well as his technical contribution: "his competence as an exceptional engineer, and his admirable power of work" in the "most complex technical files" p. 2.

The mayor designates him as "the father of gravity sanitation for the entire Pampelonne plain" p. 2. The speech closes with condolences addressed to the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Paul Magès p. 2.

Context

Paul Magès is known as the Citroën engineer who invented the hydropneumatic suspension, notably developed for the DS, perfected at the end of a 49-year career that began in August 1925 and ended with his retirement in September 1974 (Photographs of Paul Magès' retirement (1974)). This speech, delivered after this professional retirement, testifies to a second life of local commitment in Ramatuelle, in the Var, where the Magès couple had settled and where Paul Magès was a municipal councillor then 2nd deputy mayor, nicknamed "the Professor" by his constituents (Portrait of Paul Magès in Ramatuelle, "the Professor" and "saviour of De Gaulle") — a biographical element that directly sheds light on the admiration expressed by the mayor for his "engineering competence".

The Pampelonne plain, famous for its beaches, was experiencing increasing urbanisation at that time which required sanitation works — a general geographical context not detailed in the speech itself.

Archivist's perspective

This funeral speech offers a rare insight into the life of Paul Magès after his career at Citroën: it shows a man integrated into the local community, putting his engineering expertise at the service of public interest projects, far from the automobile p. 2. It echoes the tribute paid by his successor upon the death of Magès on 22 September 1999, a few weeks before this mass (Speech by the Mayor of Ramatuelle in tribute to Paul Magès (1999)).

The disorder of the pages, noted in the initial description, corresponds well to the logical order restored here: p. 3 (opening), p. 1, p. 2 (continuation and conclusion).

This text constitutes a valuable, albeit non-technical, testimony on the personality of Magès — his "power of work" and his sense of service, qualities that find an echo in his career as a self-taught engineer at Citroën, where he climbed the ranks to the position of deputy head of the Super-Control (Draft letter from Paul Magès to Mr. Sarre and interview plan of 11 May 1969).