The funeral on 12 November 1970 was the biggest such event in French history and a national mourning was declared. Thousands of guests attended, included De Gaulle's successor Georges Pompidou, U.S. president Richard Nixon, British prime minister Edward Heath, UN secretary-general U Thant, Soviet statesman Nikolai Podgorny, Italian president Giuseppe Saragat, West German chancellor Willy Brandt and Queen Juliana of the Netherlands. The General was conveyed to the church on a turretless Panhard EBR and carried to his grave, next to his daughter Anne, by eight young men of Colombey. As he was lowered into the ground, the bells of all the churches in France tolled, starting from Notre Dame and spreading out from there.
The funeral on 12 November 1970 was the biggest such event in French history and a national mourning was declared. Thousands of guests attended, included De Gaulle's successor Georges Pompidou, U.S president Richard Nixon, British prime minister Edward Heath, UN secretary-general U Thant, Soviet statesman Nikolai Podgorny Italian president Giuseppe Saragat, West German chancellor Willy Brandt and Queen Juliana of the Netherlands The General was conveyed to the church on a turretless Panhard EBR and carried to his grave, next to his daughter Anne, by eight young men of Colombey. As he was lowered into the ground, the bells of all the churches in France tolled, starting from Notre Dame and spreading out from there.