Seventy-eight-year-old Michel Gaillot, former mayor of Echillais in France, makes it a point to visit India almost every year.
An Indophile, he won the mandate five times since 1971 and is now councillor representing a region which has 3,700 residents. “I have been coming to India since 2012, especially Kerala and Tamil Nadu, along with people from my village,” he said, as he ended his two-day tour of Kochi and was about to leave for Munnar with his wife Mireille, a former nurse, and five others from his village. The couple has three children and as many grandchildren.
The 20-day trip, which he refers to as a pilgrimage, will cover Thekkady, Alappuzha, Madurai, Pondicherry, Mahabalipuram, and Chennai, from where they will fly back to France. In Fort Kochi, the guests did a walking tour of famous heritage locales.
Having been principal of a catering college, he has partnered with founders of popular eateries in India. “Indian food is a festival of different savouries, where cooking is a harmony of different communities and regions,” he said.
“The Indophile likes meeting Indians, connecting with the people, moving around in markets, temples and churches, while also appreciating the architecture,” said M.K. Ajit Kumar, president of Asia Pacific Tours that is hosting the French visitors in India.
Mr. Gaillot’s first visit to India was in 1966 as a student associated with a group involved in mitigating hunger, especially in Bihar. He met Mother Teresa in Kolkata in 1966 and went on to visit other cities including Jaipur, Agra, New Delhi, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Chennai, Kochi, Hyderabad, and Varanasi.
“I was born into a family of farmers, and my brother is even now a farmer, cultivating wheat, maize and also has a cattle farm. In 1997, I was elected president of AEHT, an association that provides a means of communication between European hotel and tourism schools and later on became national president of a council of wise people [those aged over 60 years who would play the role of village elders]. The emphasis was on promoting participatory democracy,” he said.
