Charles and Anne de Gaulle

The following deals with an issue close to my and my family's heart: Down Syndrome. Shortly after I learned of Anne de Gaulle , my dad emailed me the same info I had been researching. :)

In light of the recent media frenzy over Sarah Palin and her beautiful son, Trig (who was born with Down Syndrome), I found out that Charles de Gaulle's daughter, Anne, also had it. And she was the LIGHT of his world. While he was normally very reserved, friends, family and colleagues attested to the fact that he became a big, soft hearted dadda around her (my words!). I spent about an hour trying to find a photo of her or them together online and did not come up with anything.

In October 1945, Yvonne de Gaulle bought the Château de Vert-Cœur at Milon-la-Chapelle (Yvelines), where they installed a private hospital for handicapped young girls: the Fondation Anne de Gaulle.

Anne died on 6 February 1948 (20 years old) at Colombey-les-Deux-Églises. Upon her death, her father said: "Now, she's like the others." ("Maintenant, elle est comme les autres.")

On 22 August 1962, Charles de Gaulle was the victim of an attempted assassination at Petit-Clamart. He later said that the potentially fatal bullet had been stopped by the frame of the photograph of Anne that he always carried with him, placed this particular day on the rear shelf of his car. When he died in 1970, he was buried in the cemetery of Colombey beside his beloved daughter. (The last three sections are from wikipedia, though I researched it and it seems to be true according to other sources as well.)

Up until the past week or so, I knew only the basics about him. But wow, he was kind of hilarious;). Just declaring himself head of France, how he tried to boost morales in WWII...He was captured in WWI at Verdun and attempted to escape about 8 times. Since he was about 6.5 ft tall, he was very easy to recapture. Winston Churchill remarked about his looks 'he has hips like a woman and a head like a pineapple'. I giggle every time I think about the pineapple statement!

And um...Indiana Jones was in a German prison with de Gaulle too:). This is just a short bit from that episode but it's funny how de Gaulle figures out that Indy is really American. Indy joined the Belgian Army since he was underage, and then right before his capture, had stolen French uniforms. One of the beautiful things about Young Indy coming out on DVD is the extensive historical shows that George Lucas had put together. This particular episode, Trenches of Hell, has fantastic essays on deGaulle, Robert Graves, Siegfried Sassoon (who Indy meets in the episode before he is captured), and the Somme. I blame George Lucas completely for me being a history and WWI nut:P. Although I think that was his intention;).