A bon vivant, a politician with a lively humour, Jacques Chirac knew how to win the hearts of the French with his honesty and his escapades as a man of the people. President of the Republic for 12 years, he will still have made headlines with his TV appearances and his sexist, racist assertions ... or simply offbeat.

What we will keep Jacques Chirac , apart from her unforgettable doll from the Guignols de l'Info, these are her dumplings immortalized by the camera. Whether it's about women, politics or ribaldness, the former head of state has always been able to make the audience laugh, whether it was intended or not. A look back at 10 cult moments in Chiraquia with jacqueries engraved in marble.

• 'What does this shrew want from me? My balls on a platter?'

We are in February 88, during the European summit in Brussels. Margaret Thatcher asks for aid from the European Union. Jacques Chirac, thinking his microphone is off, apparently tired of these grievances, lets loose: 'But what does this shrew want from me? My balls on a platter ?' A phrase that will resonate for a long time in the ears of our English neighbors since The Sun , the country's leading tabloid, will headline 'The French Prime Minister is filthy'.

• 'For me, the ideal woman is the Corrèze woman'

A lover of women as well as of his native land, Corrèze, Jacques Chirac quickly combined the two in a single quote, dating from 1978 for F Magazine . 'For me, the ideal woman is the woman from Corrèze the one of old, hard at work, who serves men at table, never sits with them and does not speak.' Chirac was another generation!

• 'I really like apples!'

In 1995, Jacques Chirac tried his luck again in the presidential elections and took advantage of his appearances on the sets to promote his campaign book, France For All . Questioned by Alain Duhamel, candidate Chirac answers a 'frivolous' question from the journalist, who cannot help but ask why the front cover of the book is illustrated with an apple tree. Author's response: 'I like apples a lot. I'm an apple eater, I like cider too. At home, in Corrèze, there are apple trees and they make a little cider there, which is not very pretentious but which I like. So it kind of reminds me of that,' simply concludes Jacques Chirac, smiling.
Moreover, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe declared to RTL that he had planted an apple tree in Matignon Park when he came to government, in homage to Jacques Chirac's slogan during his 1995 campaign.

• 'Are you serious or humorous?'

During this same interview, Arlette Chabot questions the candidate about his ambition. 'Whatever happens, will you go all the way in this presidential campaign?' Jacques Chirac's bloody response is not long in coming: 'Do you speak seriously or are you humorous? Let's be serious, Arlette Chabot, please...' A memory - a bit sexist which would be difficult to pass today- which must still haunt the journalist...

• 'You know women, you have to be careful'

An inveterate seducer, Jacques Chirac made the whole of France laugh in 2009 during a trip to Corrèze. While his wife Bernadette makes a speech for the inauguration of a museum, Jacques Chirac tale flowerette behind his back to a young elected , Sophie Top , whom he summons to come and sit by his side. Whispering words in the hollow of his ear, the former president then said to him: 'You know women, you have to be careful!'. The flirtation ends when Bernadette Chirac interrupts her speech to glare at her womanizer husband.

• “Without her, I will be miserable like the stones”

According to journalist Franz-Olivier Giesbert, author of the biography, Chirac, A Life (Ed. Flammarion) published in 2016, the former President would have told him: “We humans are the Cro-Magnons of prehistory. Always chasing and stalking . But at the end of the endings, we must return to our cave. Me, I need this cave to find myself. Without it, I will be miserable like the stones.' To note that the 'caves' in question is none other than Bernadette Chirac, his wife since 1956.

• 'To our women, to our horses and to those who ride them!'

Professional when it comes to using saucy terms and expressions from another age, Jacques Chirac entertained his relatives and collaborators with special speeches. His faithful friend and former president of the National Assembly, Jean-Louis Debré, even made a book of it, The World According to Chirac (Ed. Tallandier) published in 2015 and in which he compiles the best quotes from Jacques Chirac. It was in March 1992 that the former president would have launched this toast, in support of the candidacy of Jean-Louis Debré in the legislative elections: 'Let's drink to our wives, our horses and those who ride them' .

• 'The Sound and the Smell'

This is one of Jacques Chirac's most famous slip-ups. In 1991, during an RPR dinner-debate in Orléans, the mayor of Paris recounted his walk in the Goutte d'Or district with Alain Juppé. How do you expect the French worker […] who sees on the landing next to his HLM, piled up, a family with a father, three or four wives, and about twenty kids, and who earns 50,000 francs of benefits, without of course working! If you add to that the noise and the smell. Well the French worker on the landing is going crazy.' Hilarity in the room … but controversy for these racist remarks immediately afterwards.

• 'What do you want ? Me to go back to my plane ?'

On a visit to Israel in 1996, Jacques Chirac, who took a walk in the streets of Jerusalem, violently apostrophized an Israeli policeman with unorthodox methods. 'What do you want? Me to go back to my plane and go back to France?' (What do you want? For me to get back on my plane and go back to France?)

• Intimacy: 'If you're not happy, ask for a divorce!'

All couples go through difficult times and the Chiracs are no exception. Bernadette Chirac has never hidden the patience she had to show to overcome her husband's infidelities. According to Candice Nédelec, author of Bernadette et Jacques (Ed. Stock) the groom didn't wait long to cheat on his young bride who complained about it. 'If you're not happy, file for divorce!' , would have then suggested the former President of the Republic. In 2016, in a documentary, she will explain why she never divorced: 'I didn't do it because first of all, I'm a practicing Catholic and I believe that the training you received when you were a child is indelible. And then, you have to tell the truth, I was still very much in love with my husband.

Source journaldesfemmes.fr