“Do I have any idea of ​​living in Paris?” : Maïté and her “hellish” life in the French capital

Born in 1938 into a family of seven children, Maïté is a “curvy” woman, as she says herself. Coming from a large and modest family (“We had no money”), the one who started as a barrier guard at the SNCF had only one child, Serge. “My husband and I took a long time to have children. I didn't have time to take care of my son. It's easier to be a grandmother, we're freer,” explains the one who is the true head of the family, sometimes “stifling” and “invasive”, as her niece confesses. “Everyone is in Rion, everyone wants to get together. We don’t talk much, but when there is a problem everyone is there,” explains the young woman to her aunt.

“Hellish Life”

At the start of her career Maïté worked seven days a week: at the SNCF, therefore, but in a restaurant on weekends. Before being spotted by a director. His media career was launched. She becomes a star with her sidekick, Micheline Banzet. Behind the success, a heartbreak. “Life in Paris was very hard. It's both inhuman and hellish. What a horror! 'Do I have any sense of living in Paris?'” she asks Mireille Dumas before to blurt out to the host, provoking general laughter: “Look at my face, look at yours, it’s not the same.”