There were books everywhere at Bernard Pivot. In libraries but also in the entrance, on the tables… What could be more normal, for someone who, in France, has embodied literature for sixty years? To talk about those he wrote, whom he chronicled, whom he loved, he opened the door of his Parisian home, a large old, somewhat dark apartment which gave the impression of having taken a leap into the past, with its fireplace, paneling, parquet floors and stained glass windows. “We are just behind the Salle Wagram, one of the oldest performance halls in Paris, he explained. The staircase is that of the old artists’ entrance. »
Read also: Death of Bernard Pivot: our last interview with the lover of books and dictations
Apostrophes, the literary high mass
If Bernard Pivot, who died on Monday May 6 at the age of 89, in the Paris region, personified books, literature and the French language for many, it is because he had spoken about them for decades at the French television. When we…
