When Paris St. Germain won the first leg of their Champions' League match with Barcelona, 4-0 in March this year, Mr. Dayot got a bit carried away and made a promise which has come back to haunt him.
🇫🇷Mont-De-Marsan Mayor Charles Dayot eats a RAT after losing a bet 'If Barça eliminates PSG, i'll eat a rat' pic.twitter.com/7L18xsPE8y
— ༓αδιλ༓ (@Barzaboy) 24 July 2017
"If Barca go through to the next round I'll eat a rat and vote for (far-left candidate Jean-Luc) Melenchon," he wrote on social media.
Sadly for him the second leg at the Catalan club's Nou Camp stadium was one of the most phenomenal comebacks in the history of football.
Barcelona were leading 3-1 on the night with just two minutes to go and looked like they would crash out of the tournament, and save Mr. Dayot his long-tailed supper.
But two goals by Neymar and one by Sergi Roberto in injury time triggered wild scenes and saw Barca proceed to the quarter finals at the expense of the French champions.
At the time Mr. Dayot, a 49-year-old father-of-five, was only the deputy mayor but last month he succeeded Genevieve Darrieussecq as Mayor of the small town of Mont-de-Marsan in the Landes region of south-west France.
So his entire political career hinged on whether he would be a man of his word and follow through on his foolish promise.
"plus jamais je ferai de pari" Charles dayot 23 juillet 2017 devant @gdarrieussecq
— Audrey Ludwig (@ludaudrey) 23 July 2017
@SO_Landes pic.twitter.com/QkJuNVn07a
Tweet: "I will never bet (again), says Charles Dayot"
It is not known if he voted for Mr. Melenchon, who failed to make it through to the second round of the presidential election, with was eventually won by centrist Emmanuel Macron.
But on Sunday (July 23), at the annual Madeleine Festival, Mr. Dayot sat down and tucked into "plat de rat."
Mr. Dayot's unusual meal was live streamed and tweeted and to rub salt in the wound a Barca fan dangled one of the club's jerseys on the table next to his supper.
Ironically last week Paris St. Germain were reported to have agreed to pay a record 222 million euros (US$255 million) for Neymar, whose two goals leveled the tie back in March.
