De Gaulle at the Beach (French: De Gaulle à la plage) is a 2007 humoristic French comic strip album written and drawn by Jean-Yves Ferri (who would reprise Asterix in 2013).
In 1956, Charles de Gaulle, the leader of the Free French Government in Exile during World War II, unsuccessfully tried his luck in politics. Faced with the ungratefulness of French people and their government, he takes a vacation on a beach resort in Brittany with his assistant Lebornec. Wacky stuff ensues.
It received an Animated Adaptation in 2020 on the TV channel Arte.
This comic strip provides examples of:
- Assassination Attempt: At one point, two men in a plane attempt a fly-by shooting to kill De Gaulle while he's in the water. Everyone around him ends up dead... except him.
- Cloudcuckoolander: De Gaulle doesn't seem to be quite there, constantly reminiscing about his war memories and attempts at a political career and not caring that much about his surroundings while seemingly having his eyes always shut. At one point, he even goes to the beach watch hut and starts reenacting his World War II BBC radio speeches on the hut's megaphone.
- The Comically Serious: De Gaulle remains The Stoic throughout despite the ridiculous situations he causes or finds himself in.
- Eyes Always Shut: De Gaulle never seems to open his eyes... unless there's a O.O.C. Is Serious Business moment.
- Historical Domain Character: De Gaulle, of course, and his buddy Winston Churchill.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The one moment where De Gaulle acts really surprised and opens his eyes is when he finds a newspaper ad about the new Citroën DS car (his Real Life Cool Car).
- Sequel Snark: On the back of the cover, there's a list of fanciful albums (the album itself is a one-shot): "De Gaulle in China", "De Gaulle at Winter Sports", "De Gaulle Astronaut" (complete with a picture of De Gaulle, Lebornec and Wehrmacht in space suits resembling those of Tintin: Explorers on the Moon), "De Gaulle passes by the Olympia" (a concert hall), "De Gaulle: King of the Fiji Islands", "Panic in Colombey", "De Gaulle Shipwrecks" and "Pompidou's Revenge".
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: De Gaulle adopted Wehrmacht, the (fictional) wolfdog of Adolf Hitler. The dog regularly has nightmares from the battle of Berlin and wakes up thinking the war is still going on.
- Those Wacky Nazis: Wehrmacht, the PTSD-afflicted wolfdog of Adolf Hitler. He makes a Nazi salute to Lebornec when the latter orders him to give a paw, is still loyal to Hitler, digs holes to fight imaginary Soviet soldiers and is still waiting for the reinforcements that never came to Berlin. Basically, that dog would get along very well with Dr. Strangelove.Wehrmacht: Those horripel Communists won't get our dry pet food, mein Führer!
- Uncanny Family Resemblance: De Gaulle's son Philippe looks exactly like him, just with open eyes instead of Eyes Always Shut.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: De Gaulle can remain completely unfazed by wacky things happening around him. If he sees them at all.
- Wearing It All Wrong: Lebornec presents a pair of flip-flops (taken on enemy Viet Cong soldiers during the First Indochina War according to him) to De Gaulle. So what does De Gaulle do next? He wears them... on his fingers instead of his toes.
