Intercity, without cows, no question. Dax and Mont-de-Marsan will not participate in the big return of the cult show next summer on television. During the traditional back-to-school press conference at the beginning of September, France Télévisions had announced the return of Intervilles for four evenings, in the summer of 2025. Shows which will be presented in particular by Nagui (also producer of the show) and which will be done…without cows. Nagui being firmly committed to defending the animal cause. This is not the first time that this has been discussed: the host-producer had already announced in 2020 the return of the cult show, but without a cow, which, at the time, caused a real outcry in the Landes. Finally, the Covid having passed through there, this return from Intervilles did not take place.
But the summer of 2025 should therefore see the return of the cult show to the small screen, albeit a little remodeled. And without the traditional cows. In these conditions, there is no question of participating for Dax and Mont-de-Marsan, two emblematic cities of the show. Each has also won it three times (in 1962, 1971 and 2008 for Dax, in 1998, 2006 and 2007 for Mont-de-Marsan).
“We declined the offer”
“We were contacted by the production company, who confirmed the absence of cows” confirms Julien Dubois, the mayor of Dax. “This implies that they would suffer trauma by participating in Intervilles. Which is absolutely not the case. In this context, we declined the offer made to us”. No regrets, when Dax was the first city to win Intervilles, in 1962? “It was then a show that took place within a certain framework, and not with underlying messages that do not correspond to us”says Julien Dubois.
“Intertowns without cows, it’s a fair”
Same story with the Landes prefecture. “Intervilles without the cows, it’s a bit like surimi or Canada Dry, it lacks flavor” laughs Charles Dayot, the mayor of Mont-de-Marsan. “More seriously, Intervilles without cows is not Intervilles. It’s something else, it’s a fair, or some game show, but it’s not called Intervilles.” Charles Dayot who also agrees with his Dacquois counterpart regarding the problem implied by the absence of cows: “I think that indirectly, it is also, not a form of attack, but a denigration of traditions around animals like the Landes cow and others…and it is obvious that the town of Mont-de-Marsan has little to do with an Intervilles without cows. It’s not at all the concept we knew and it’s a shame, it distorts the show which filled the arenas here and which leaves good people. memories to a whole generation who participated in this adventure with great enthusiasm at the time” concludes Charles Dayot. Charles Dayot who knows what he is talking about: in 2007, during Mont-de-Marsan’s third and final victory at Intervilles, it was he who was the captain of the Mons team!
