Nicolas Peyrac is a happy man in the village of his childhood, where he lives. A lover of words, combined with the past or the present, he tells us his family history and his career, in all simplicity, in the film by director Fanny Bertrand “Nicolas Peyrac, simply free”.
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Nicolas Peyrac is a happy family man and very attached to his roots. In the village of his childhood, in Saint-Brice-en-Coglès, between Rennes and Fougères, it is as a “man, simply free” that he opens the doors of his house and his garden to us.
Nicolas Peyrac’s family home, in Saint-Brice
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© FTV
Today, aged 75, he continues to compose, because he is, unconditionally, a lover of writing.
Nicolas Peyrac grew up with a father who was a country doctor and a mother who was the head of a hospital department. Parents very attentive to his future, but “each in their own way” he said.
To please his mother, he embarked, without conviction, on medical studies, but it was alongside his father and stepmother, in the house of Saint-Brice, that he found a “haven of peace“.
« In my mother’s mind, I was going to be a doctor, in my father’s, if I wanted to sing, I had to try, and in mine, it didn’t matter, I knew that one day, I will do it ».
Nicolas Peyrac, child.
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© FTV
My father always secretly dreamed that one of his sons would one day do what he couldn’t: write.
So, between the doctor-poet and the writer-singer, Nicolas wanders. From medicine, he takes away the pleasure of being alongside people.
“My father always secretly dreamed that one of his sons would one day do what he could not: write.” he said.
The song “And my father“, Nicolas Peyrac wrote it in his 5th year of medicine, at the Salpétrière hospital, where he worked. “I was more interested in people than in illness.”he said. “Rather than doing a blood count, I preferred writing songs. That also, it may or may not boost people’s morale, but it’s my way of being a doctor“.
Rather than doing a blood count, I preferred to write songs
Nicolas Peyrac has mixed memories of the dazzling start to his career in the 1970s. Even if he says he is delighted with his success and happy to hear people whistling his songs, he has painful memories of that time. “It was a complicated period of life“, he said, ” I was like caught in a trap”.
Between the years 75 and 86, propelled at the same time what “the kitty singers” he said, il felt “carried away in the whirlwind of tours“He confesses that he no longer recognized himself.”It was me, without being me. I did what I wanted, but I was a prisoner of what was happening in my professional life and my private life.”
So, after the death of his mother and after his divorce, overwhelmed and tortured, he flew with his wife, Pascale, to Montreal. “I had to be reborn.”he said. And once again, the decisions that I knew and was able to make, at that moment, were thanks to my meeting with Pascale.”.
At that time, I was a prisoner of what was happening in my professional life, my personal life, plus the death of my mother, my divorce.
Photo of Nicolas Peyrac performing his song “Et mon père” in 1975.
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© FTV
Nicolas, after the death of his father this time, felt the need to return home. He wanted to live in this house which was part of his history. Pascale, his wife, supported him in this choice: “We didn’t immigrate under pressure, it was a choice we made to live in Montreal, and we always said that we couldn’t see ourselves growing old there.“, she said.
This is how Nicolas Peyrac, who has traveled around the world, says he is completely happy, in Saint-Brice where his authentic family and sentimental history takes on its full meaning.
Australia, Japan, Korea, the United States, even though I have traveled the world, I realize that my roots are there.
With her daughters Sarah and Amanda, the pleasure of shared moments is also very precious. The journey has not been the same for her two long-estranged daughters. But with words, through writing, song and over time, the family no longer misses an opportunity to reunite.
I missed a lot of things, and today I try to make up for the opportunities, if they present themselves
“Nicolas Peyrac, simply free” a film to watch Thursday December 5, 2024, on France 3 Bretagne, in the second part of the evening, and now on france.tv
