France Inter’s “The €1,000 Game” stops at the Sainte-Croix museum

Like the approximately two hundred Poitevins gathered in the auditorium of the Sainte-Croix museum, this Tuesday, December 3, 2024, I firmly believed in my chances. I was sure of it: I would finally succeed in participating in the legendary radio game; I was going to be selected for the €1,000 Game.

“What is the name of the Emperor of Japan?” »

After all, if France Inter set up its microphones in Poitiers, it is to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the establishment inaugurated on December 21, 1974, only twenty days after my own birth. Between fifty-year-olds, we were bound to get along…

Alas, the hope was only short-lived. At 5 p.m. sharp, the show's host launches the selections by inviting the candidates to gather in front of the auditorium stage. Around thirty daring people get up from their chairs, soon joined by around twenty others who were confined in a second room benefiting from a video broadcast, the capacity of the auditorium being limited to one hundred and eighty seats.

We had to be quick for this pre-selection. In response to the first question asked by Nicolas Stoufflet (“Which singer recorded the album Back to black ? »), the name of Amy Winehouse is heard from all sides and does not allow us to decide between the candidates. However, it seemed to me that I was the first to give it, but all the others undoubtedly had the same certainty…

I have better luck with one of the following questions asking about the common name of the black hellebore. By responding “Christmas rose” At the same time as two other candidates, I am invited to take the stage for the second phase of selection.

There, things get tricky: the host asks a question starting with the first person to come on stage and if they don't have the right answer, he then goes back through the fifteen candidates. I have two opportunities to be selected, but I let them slip away: I don't remember the name of the current emperor of Japan (Naruhito) and I'm stuck on the Aveyron village where Giscard bought a castle in 2005 (Estaing , obviously).

“Dear friends, hello! »

Four mixed pairs are finally chosen and I will therefore not be part of them. The first recording brings together Maxime Chyra, administrative manager of the IUT of Poitiers, and Nathalie Louis, art manager at the… Sainte-Croix museum. After the traditional greeting to the public (“Dear friends, hello! »), Nicolas Stoufflet presents the museum with brutalist architecture designed by Jean Monge and cites some of its treasures.

The questions then follow one another, to the rhythm of the metallophone notes played by Yann Pailleret and to the sound of “Bank, bank…” et « Super, super… » chanted by the spectators. But, in order to preserve the suspense and interest of the show, we will obviously not reveal the result of the five recordings of the evening. To find out if the Poitevins shone, you will have to listen to the programs which will be broadcast from Monday December 16 to Friday December 20, 2024, at 12:45 p.m. sharp.