At the time, we did not speak of “Miss”, but of “the most beautiful woman in France”. It is this label that a young 17-year-old Basque was the first to win hands down, in 1920. Of Agnès Souret, who died tragically at the age of 26, remains an astonishing Art Deco mausoleum in the Espelette cemetery and a somewhat faded memory that the book published by Atlantica, Bayonne, will help to bring back to life. Throughout 256 pages on glossy paper, through dozens of family portraits, film stills, magazine posters, the image of a young woman, long neck and wispy hair, with the smiling physique of a silent ingenue .
The richness and quality of the iconography impress. They bear witness to the quest of the author, Jérôme Zapata. It was in front of the pink slab of her tomb in Espelette that this tour guide discovered Agnès Souret.
Jérôme Zapata, with one of the portraits of Agnès Souret which make up the richness of the book he devotes to her.
DR
He first fought to revive the monument. He now tells us about the one that lies beneath. Her Basque and Béarnaise roots, her traveling childhood as the daughter of a dancer, her careful education, the brief career that the “most beautiful woman in France” led, after her election, until her sad end.
A competition based on cinema
A real investigation, not shy of revelations. She goes well beyond the tender figure of Agnès to tell us about her time, these 20s of the other century marked by the proximity of the Great War, by the expansion of cinema.
The Miss France of the South West
From Agnès Souret, originally from Bayonne and first Miss France in 1920, to Mélody Vilbert, last Miss France from the South-West, a look back at the candidates from the region who have marked the history of the competition
Archives AFP
We knew a few portraits of the young woman. Jérôme Zapata's research helps expand Agnès' album.
If today's “Miss France” competition is inseparable from television, this first competition is based on the extraordinary success of cinema. It was in the theaters, week after week, that we discovered the candidates and voted for the favorite. Here again, the iconography offers a wealth of information: facsimiles of letters, programs, newspaper articles, a poem by Agnès replying to her detractors, material rich enough to seduce even those who are not passionate about the Misses.
“Agnès Souret, the most beautiful woman in France”, by Jérôme Zapata, ed. Atlantica, 256 p., €26.
