On the 8th of July 1959, during the stage from Albi to Aurillac of the Tour de France, the big favourite Charly Gaul was dropped in the boiling heat on the unknown climb to Vieillevie. Exhausted and demoralised, he stopped a little later in the village of Junhac to refresh himself at the fountain. This story, which made the headlines of the newspapers at the time, has remained in the memory of the inhabitants of the small village in the Cantal region and today, 67 years later, they want to pay tribute to it by installing a sculpture and by organising a cycling and walking event named ‘La Charly Gaul’. On May 25, Camille Dahm, the president of the FSCL, set off with Michel Kohnen and several dozen other cyclists to tackle 82 difficult kilometres around Junhac, in the presence of Fabienne Gaul and a delegation from the ACC Contern who had come to support the organisation with a few small gifts. After the award ceremony, the day ended on a festive note with food and drinks. On 13 July 2026, the rest day of the Tour de France in Aurillac, a commemorative plaque and a memorial stone were unveiled at the fountain in Junhac, in presence of the Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme, the journalist Jean-Paul Ollivier, local councillors and representatives of the ACC Contern. Finally, in September 2026, a delegation from Junhac led by mayor Christian Guy travelled to Echternach to experience the 36th edition of ‘our’ Charly Gaul and to discover Luxembourgish hospitality.
