Behind the sofa where she sat, a breathtaking view of the monumental sculpture room of the Louvre. In front of her, a glass of good Bordeaux. We are dealing with someone who likes to have fun. Sylvie Testud arranged to meet us at Café Marly, a refined address in the capital, nestled in one of the most beautiful museums in the world. The actress-author-director comes to work there during the day, her computer under her arm, has her meetings there and, in the evening, meets friends there for an aperitif. Always after dark: “I am a werewolf”she laughs, waving her ultra-mobile little eyes. “I only drink in the evening, but I smoke all day”, specifies this queen of the punchline. We feel like we’re in for a good evening.
The aperitif is his thing: “The moment when I relax, when the phone no longer rings for work, it’s voluptuous. » The only thing that changes is the time of the first drink, depending on your schedule. Right now she’s on tour for a one-on-one, Everyone knew, inspired by the book by Valérie Bacot, victim of incest by her stepfather who became her husband, who beat her, forced her into prostitution, and whom she ended up killing. So, the glass of red is more for afterwards, and it takes on a downright necessary dimension.
The photo in the can, it takes us outside for an even more grandiose panorama, the terrace facing the Pyramid which shines in the night. It’s freezing cold in November, but Sylvie Testud has brought a maxi-padded jacket so she can smoke in peace. Dapper, discreet makeup and hoop earrings, she advises the waiter so that he can find us a blanket, since we had not planned the high mountain equipment. Then she hails him a second time to guess his accent, asking him machine-gun questions in her slightly cheeky voice. The waiter responds in the same cheerful tone, he offers a second drink, the good humor is contagious.
“I live with the Mona Lisa”
For more than two years, the actress has lived just a stone’s throw away: “I live with the Mona Lisa”, she jokes. In fact, she shares her apartment with her lover, Eric Elmosnino, and her 13-year-old daughter every other week since her separation from the father of her children, with whom she spent thirty years of her life. Her 18-year-old son is in business school in Lyon, her hometown and where she doesn’t plan to return to live for anything in the world. As soon as she could, she went to Paris, and she “love this city built like a succession of small villages clinging to each other, where you can walk for hours and gorge yourself on culture”.
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