Georges Frêche, a Monday in lecture hall A

"I was his student. It was the late 1970s, and it was a blessed time," recalls Claude Cougnenc, president ofthe Association of Friends of Georges Frêche. Relations with him were very direct. In the lecture hall, we would challenge him directly, and there was friction because he had a hard time accepting contradiction." This friction did not prevent the professor from taking his student on a political adventure that would last more than thirty years, making him his friend and most loyal collaborator.

Students, academic colleagues, political companions, and often all three at once, many gathered in the auditorium on Thursday, October 22, nostalgically recalling Monday lectures in Lecture Hall A. Less for their passion for legal history than for the memory of an "extraordinary" professor, in the words of Michel Miaille, who shared his classes with him in the 1980s and 1990s. "We wrote our questions on little notes that we passed from hand to hand, and Georges Frêche answered them," says Hussein Bourgi, now a senator from Hérault. "He tackled all social issues without taboos: condoms, abortion, secularism, the wearing of the veil..."

"Nothing is more stupid than a specialist."

Ten years later, Carine Jallamion, his former assistant and now vice-dean of the Faculty of Law, still recalls those moments with emotion. "He used to tell us all the time that a good student should know something about everything. 'There's nothing more stupid than a specialist,' he liked to say in his colorful language. He didn't like pure scholars who, in his eyes, had no practical experience." He never missed an opportunity to demonstrate this during impromptu presentations on topics chosen by his students. "He loved to share his knowledge; he couldn't do without it. He shared his vision of the world as mayor and as a professor. He combined these two experiences without any political doublespeak."

Without mincing words, but with a ferocity that none of his former students would dare to ignore, "he liked to scare people a little and could assassinate you with a single sentence while admitting to the retort. He could even laugh about it," continues the vice dean. Georges Frêche also had a knack for letting no one else write his legend, "even if it meant telling us stories that were completely unbelievable but so funny. He told us he had been a dancer at the Moulin Rouge with Line Renaud to pay for his studies! " It was a fantasy that took nothing away from the talent of the man whom Professor Michel Miaille compares to a "modern Socrates who knew how to involve students in the construction of knowledge."

"This faculty meant a lot to him, and of all the ceremonies organized in his honor this year, this is the one Georges Frêche would have preferred," adds Hussein Bourgi. "It was thanks to her that he entered into this love affair with Montpellier. It was thanks to it that he met Claudine, his wife, and many of his companions in politics, Claude Cougnenc, Christine Lazerges, Paul Alliès. And his opponents too, Olivier Dugrip foremost among them." The dean of the law faculty, Guylain Clamour, who was assistant to Dean Dugrip at the time, has not forgotten the clashes between the two rivals: "He was passionate and combative, and there were many battles [...] but although these two men were largely opposed to each other in this university and in politics, they both had enough perspective to treat each other with respect and consideration."

"Journey of an atypical provincial"

Originally from Puylaurens in the Tarn region, Georges Frêche initially planned to seal his fate in the city of Toulouse. He completed his secondary education there, took preparatory classes at the Lycée Joffre in Montpellier, and then moved to Paris where, in addition to an impeccable intellectual career, he would follow, in the words of Michel Miaille, "the path of an atypical provincial." Admitted to the prestigious École Pratique des Hautes Études, he went on to study at the renowned HEC business school in 1961, where he developed "a taste for practical matters, business, and development."

Turning his back on a promising career as a business leader, he began a dual university degree in law and history at the Sorbonne and the Paris Law School, graduating with two doctorates in 1969. His Parisian studies did not diminish his regional roots, as his history thesis focused on Puylaurens in Languedoc, a Huguenot town from the Edict of Nantes to the Hundred Days, and his law thesis focused on Toulouse and the Midi-Pyrénées region during the Age of Enlightenment. "Thus, the adopted Parisian never ceased to be a Languedoc native in heart and spirit," continues his former colleague.

A paradox that would characterize him throughout his life. A provincial with international recognition who became a Knight of the Order of Academic Palms, Commander of the German and Spanish Orders of Merit, and of the Hellenic National Order, not to mention his honorary doctorate from Kingston University. "His feet in the clay and his head in the stars, as he liked to say. A professor of legal history who quoted Lao Tzu, a man of the Enlightenment who admired Machiavelli," concluded the professor.

"Law and medicine, the two pillars of Montpellier"

Back in 1969. After adding a degree in public law and political science to his impressive list of achievements, Georges Frêche chose a position at the University of Toulouse. Politics had already entered the life of this young Maoist, and a few years later he would admit to having "chosen this faculty because I already wanted to run for mayor." However, he was ultimately denied the position in Toulouse, and in 1970 he secured a position in Montpellier, a city he would never leave.

Elected mayor just seven years later, he worked tirelessly to propel Montpellier to the ranks of major cities. "For him, Montpellier had two legs: law and medicine. That's where the city's international development had to start," explains Hussein Bourgi.

For Philippe Augé, president of the University of Montpellier, "It was around knowledge that the visionary Georges Frêche built Montpellier's development, and today we can only marvel at the balance and harmony with which he achieved this. He developed medicine in the north by already planning to relocate the faculty of medicine, the economy in the south with Richter, and science in the west with the prospect of the Balard chemistry hub, which we inaugurated two years ago."

After becoming regional president in 2004, Georges Frêche made the reunification of universities one of his major projects, "at the cost of numerous battles with university presidents," recalls Philippe Augé. He was also the one who secured funding for Operation Campus, "not because his project was better than the others, but because he didn't hesitate to commit, promising 50 cents for every euro the state would contribute. He was a great builder. " These projects were a perfect fit for him, but they never prevented him from returning to his lecture hall every Monday. It was in the spring of 2007 that he gave his last lecture there. That day, Guylain Clamour, at the back of a crowded room, heard his words spoken in a voice trembling with emotion: "For years, because I had young people around me, I thought I was young."