The Paris paper trumpeted, “Duel in Neuilly: G. Defferre touches R. Ribiere twice.” Le Monde gave the story three full columns. After all, the men were important government figures. Gaston Defferre, mayor of Marseilles, former presidential candidate, and minority deputy, had twice called the majority deputy, R. Ribiere, “abruti” – brutalized, stupid, an idiot. The president of the National Assembly tried to make peace between them, but they insisted on fighting it out.
While the offended Ribiere was choosing the weapons, he was reminded that duels were illegal, and replied, “Honor is above the law.” Traditionalists, and no doubt anxious not to kill each other, they fought with swords.
They took along two witnesses and a doctor. Ribiere eluded the police on his way to the field of honor; Deferre had himself smuggled in the trunk of his car. They fought outside the city walls, in the overgrown garden of a derelict house, both in white shirts with their collars open and their sleeves rolled up. At the second touch of Deferre’s sword on Ribiere’s arm, blood was drawn and, as the papers put it, “the insult had been washed way” and “each was satisfied.” The wronged man lost, but apparently that didn’t matter; the ritual had cleansed the stain. Both were technically subject to anywhere from six days to five years in prison, but the public prosecutor ignored the matter.
It was April 22, 1967.
Source:
Holland, Barbara. “I. The Formative Years.” Gentlemen’s Blood: A History of Dueling From Swords at Dawn to Pistols at Dusk. Bloomsbury, 2004. 7, 8. Print.
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