REPORTING. Xi Jinping at Pic-du-Midi: “People talk about it anyway because we don’t know anything,” we laugh Bagnres-de-Bigorre

This Monday, the La Mongie station displays its usual appearance at the end of April. Skiing finished, “all closed” is the rule and the Pic-du-Midi is not due to reopen until May 31. Only three establishments provide service for the rare tourists and permanent staff. Ghostly scenery of fog on the white tattered slopes and rain-snow limit 2000 m: a priori, nothing happens. And often for a long time, the offseason. So, a historic meeting, think…

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“The Chinese president here? It's a total surprise for us. Nobody talks about it!” At the Auberge des Neiges, Marie and her son Gatan do not feign astonishment. “We are really knocked out of everything,” smiles this last worker on interior projects before summer. But the dimension of the event suddenly becomes apparent. Fear of the Moscow-Beijing axis: “China remains China, an essential power, we have to be on good terms with it,” believes Gatan.

“Everything is super discreet”

In the drizzle, outside, two tourists are walking, a third is carrying his trash to the container. This ballet of around ten black Mercedes utility vehicles and minibuses with smoked windows that have been passing back and forth for several days; this Chinese team, some of whose representatives are sitting on the balcony of their three-star residence, sheltered to chat, while others unload boxes at the entrance while one of their colleagues unfolds La Dépché ; or the lit sign of La Voie Lacte, a four-star hotel that is nevertheless “closed for holidays until June 15”, says the answering machine… “No, we didn't notice”, they agree.

In fact, “everything is extremely discreet and nothing is definitively settled yet,” confirms someone close to the matter. “The Chinese president will indeed come with Emmanuel Macron to the Hautes-Pyrnes. But knowing if they will go up to the Pic-du-Midi or if they will stay at the Tourmalet with a stop at the Etape du Berger at Eric Abadie… We remain in the “expectant,” he says.

Security

The Pic-du-Midi would indeed mean taking the cable car or the helicopter. “And a priori, the security services are not fans of the idea and then the weather is random,” slips another. “That, if Macron wants to stay stuck for three days with Xi-Jinping for a summit meeting…”, laughs a third. Security: THE subject.

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This morning, an Air China Boeing 747 freighter took off from Tarbes-Lourdes-Pyrnes airport. The Chinese president's armored car is not the least of the logistical problems to be resolved. “Transporting it is one thing, unloading it another”… What about then going up to the Col du Tourmalet, whose road is closed after La Mandia? “I saw a snowplow go by, they are going to clear the road before next week”, believes a consumer at the “Chez Boris” table, open all year round, where the regulars have lunch and where “the pastries of the family are cooked”. delegation in the morning,” he adds.

“No pictures”

“A team with very respectful people, very discreet, very professional,” confides a neighbor. “But no photos and we will not communicate before this visit is made official,” specifies one of the members of this Chinese delegation, in perfect French, courteous but firm. Because beyond this first from the president of the second world power in the Hautes-Pyrnes; beyond the symbol of this Pic du Midi observatory whose photos allowed NASA to map the Moon, now at the heart of Chinese space ambitions… It is first of all “the President's heart department, the one where he comes to rejuvenate” that Paris wants to display, he repeats to himself in the corridors.

French table diplomacy

Table diplomacy in all simplicity, at the detour of the Route des Gants of the Tour de France… “It's as if he invited him to his home to talk about serious subjects in a troubled period” sums up a Tarbais… And “even if we don't yet know if they will go through Bagnres”, at the Grand Caf des Coustous, if the subject doesn't make the headlines, “people talk about it anyway because we don't know anything”, laughs this septuagnarian and “it’s good for the area”, congratulates Franck behind the counter. Good, even more so in the valley.

“Receiving the Chinese President and the President of the Republic in our country, in Bigorre, is a historic event and a source of great pride. Xi-Jinping is the president of a great country and it is proof that we are a great site”, congratulates Alexandre Pujo-Menjouet, the mayor of Campan, hoping for this other diplomatic recognition for the Pic-du-Midi, currently in the running for UNESCO classification.