In ten years, Stéphane Bern has made the favorite Village of the French a cult television meeting that has transformed his life, to be found on France 3 Wednesday June 29 at 9:00 p.m.
What have you got in store for us to celebrate these ten years?
STEPHANE BERN: With nearly 170 villages and thousands of kilometers covered, the production has set up a few bloopers where you can see me on horseback, in a microlight and so on! Bêtisiers that I enriched during this anniversary number shot in Sancerre – winner last year – during a sequence that does not necessarily put me to my advantage when it comes to drinking wine…
What is your greatest satisfaction ten years after the launch of the show?
Of course, the highlighting of all these villages. I realized that real wealth was human. The treasure of France are the people who bring these villages to life, maintain them and preserve them. Me who now lives in the countryside (in the Perche, editor’s note), it’s a language that I understand.
A program that changes the life of its host to the point of making him move to the countryside, it’s rather rare, isn’t it?
Unlike other animators who do their job in the studios of La Plaine Saint-Denis, for me, to make a show, I set off to discover six villages. This is where my legitimacy lies, on the pitch. And this is how my Heritage Mission was born.
What do you expect from Emmanuel Macron’s second term in this regard?
The Loto du Patrimoine, born between the Française des jeux and the Heritage Foundation, goes beyond politics. And since I’m a volunteer, it allows me to say what I think: when we destroy our heritage, I rebel!
Do you think you will still find villages to celebrate in ten years?
It’s a real question. Mercantile pressure and real estate development mean that the pretty agglomerations and protected town centers are shrinking. And I’m not talking about the sites massacred by the wind turbines which cannot even hope to be selected!
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