We knew how DJ Philippe Corti, once a television sidekick of Thierry Ardisson, was forever connected to Avignon, where he lived for a long time, behind Place Pie. But did you know that Ardisson himself had a personal history with the city of the Popes?
In June 1970, more than half a century ago, the black-clad host actually got married there for the first time, as evidenced by this photo of “Provençal” (ancestor of “La Provence”) signed from our late reporter Max Parpaleix. A cliché that resurfaced a few days ago on the blog of Michel Benoît (avignon.hautetfort.com), an Internet user who revives nostalgia for proximity.
On this late spring day in 1970, at the Carmelite church, a young 21-year-old Parisian advertising executive, Thierry Ardisson (who had not yet invented the slogan “Ovomaltine is dynamite!”), married Christiane Bergognon, whom he later often presented “as the prettiest girl in Avignon”. A young woman who is the granddaughter of the great fashion designer Vincent Casalino. Witness to the wedding, “Le Provençal” soberly titles “Elegant wedding at the Carmes” and details the outfits of the two spouses, specifying to this effect that the groom was wearing a light suit that day. Far, in fact, from the anthracite costumes which would make his cathodic legend a few years later, on the sets of “Everybody speaks of it” (France 2) or even “Les terriens du Samedi” (Canal Plus).
Far from Avignon, but loving to think that he remains a pope of the small screen, Thierry Ardisson has been married since 2014 to the journalist Audrey Crespo-Mara.
