Dhe two Berthollet sisters, stars of classical music and beyond, she is the eldest. Julie Berthollet, a 25-year-old violinist, has been multiplying concerts, albums and artistic projects for several years with her sister Camille, a cellist a year younger than her. It is also in his company that the Franco-Swiss musician, who grew up in Annecy, settled in Paris more than five years ago. Not hesitating to say things frankly, in a world more accustomed to hushed silences, the two sisters took the floor in February 2020 to denounce sexual assault in classical music.
At the end of June 2022, Julie Berthollet announced on social networks that she wanted to leave the capital after two attacks “in total indifference”. A position widely relayed and commented on. Three weeks later, the young woman returns to Point on his feelings after his assaults, his relationship with Paris, the French way of life and his desires for the future.
Point : What happened on June 22?
Julie Berthollet: First a young man tried to steal my phone while I was waiting for a taxi near my house. Then, a second time in the same day, while I was on the metro platform for line 4, a man passed me on the left, he insulted me, snatched my jewelry. I ran after him but he had a knife in his hand and when I approached he pushed me down the stairs.
It was not the first time that I was attacked in Paris, a year and a half ago already on line 4 of the metro, it seems to me, I had been dumped to pick my pockets.
Were you also marked by the way people reacted around you?
Rather by the way people did not react. I understand when you see someone armed that you wait before reacting, but afterwards, no one came to see me to ask me if I was okay. Of all the people around, apart from the woman from the RATP, no one stopped. This is not the behavior that I was taught, for me it is the basis of going to see if the person is well.
Have you filed a complaint?
Yes, it is important when something happens, if only so that it can be seen on the statistics. And it also gives a chance to arrest the person.
But I care little about the complaint, what matters to me is to get better, to move forward in life. I let the police do their job, I trust. Me, I’m moving forward.
How do you feel ?
I’m much more scared than before when I go out, I don’t dare go in alone anymore. Before, I was the most reckless, always saying “it’s okay, it’s going to be fine”, and now I have to get rid of this fear that has happened.
Have you since returned to Paris?
I’m there right now, I live there with my sister in an apartment that Stéphane Plaza found for us. We arrived five and a half years ago, we were at the hotel every week for concerts or promotion, and we thought that rather than coming to the same room each time, it would be more nice to have an apartment.
How did you find life in Paris when you arrived at the time?
I know Annecy, where I grew up, and afterwards I traveled and lived in other countries. In Vienna, Austria, where I lived for a year when I was 16, I found the city very safe, nothing ever happened to me. I also lived in Zurich and Geneva, and everything went very well there.
Paris is a more stressful city. You have to be careful when you go out alone, when you are a woman, these are her bad sides. These are things that you learn on the job when you arrive, that are passed on from woman to woman. When I arrived five and a half years ago, I was new. I was taught to put my bag in front of me, to be careful in the evening when I’m alone, to keep my keys in my hand when I’m on the street… These are rules to know.
I’m pretty optimistic by nature and always feel like everyone is nice. I didn’t expect there to be so many things to take into account, but I adapted.
Do you find that the situation has deteriorated since you moved to Paris, that incivility has developed?
No, I would say that 99% of the time everything goes very well, but I think I was unlucky and it is this personal experience that makes me want to leave.
You did explain that you wanted to go to Switzerland after your attack. It was these attacks that led to this decision? And why the choice of Switzerland?
I had this idea of leaving Paris in mind for a while, but it was the last little straw that broke the camel’s back. For my daily life, I would like to settle in a calmer, more creative place.
I don’t know yet if I’m going to keep my apartment, we have to find our balance with my sister.
It could have been another place, in the countryside in France for example, but I have family. I’m looking for a quieter place where you can go out alone without asking questions, even in the evening, or put your phone on the table or say hello to someone without it being misinterpreted. There are fewer attacks in Switzerland, the atmosphere is different.
But I will regularly return to Paris for its good sides.
What are the good sides?
Cultural life, clearly, I love monuments, I love architecture, I think the parks are magnificent, there is really an elegance to Parisian life.
And as a musician, how do you view Paris and France?
A bit of a dream look: for me, it’s the city where the biggest concerts have taken place, where you can find the legendary record companies, the biggest producers… It’s really a dream that I realized in arriving here. Being able to play at the Olympia, at the Salle Pleyel… It really is a city of dreams.
In France, there is a very warm and loyal public, you see when you tour people who come back three or four times. The Parisian public is very demanding, you have to surpass yourself when you do a concert in Paris. It requires an extra dose of work even if we give the maximum each time.
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And your assaults made you put this image into perspective?
I become disillusioned every time something negative happens to me, but I am someone who recovers very quickly. These are things that happen, but you have to bounce back right away, that’s life!
Do you think that France has lost its way of life?
Yes and no, France is not Emily in Paris, this is not the France of a hundred years ago! But we kept an elegance, an art of living, a love of culture. France has retained its magic.
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Would you advise a young musician like you to come and settle in Paris anyway?
Yes, I would advise him because it is inevitable in the career of a young musician. But I would also tell him to be very careful, to surround himself well and to take all the precautions.
How do you envision your life in Paris in the coming weeks?
I’m not going to be there that much because we play in a lot of festivals with my sister and I have a writing residency in Switzerland. But it does me good to move, to digest events and to create. I am delighted to be in the action and not to dwell. I see the end of the tunnel, I’m lucky to be well surrounded, to be able to exchange and I manage to move forward.
Julie and Camille Berthollet will be in concert on November 9 at the Grand Rex in Paris with their latest album “Series”.