A book on the incandescent life of Jean-Louis Foulquier, creator of the Francofolies

CIt was another time, another era. This is what we feel as soon as we start leafing through Maryz Bessaguet's latest work dedicated to Jean-Louis Foulquier, whom she knew well. A time when the walls of the Maison de la radio in Paris were lined with carpet, when people smoked in the studios and when Georges Brassens showed up unexpectedly when he wanted to chat with the guests of “Pollen”, the The show hosted by Jean-Louis Foulquier on France Inter.

A bygone era, which the Rochelais personified to perfection. Jane Birkin, Serge Gainsbourg, Pierre Desproges, Coluche, Véronique Sanson, Johnny Hallyday, Alain Delon but also Diam's or Akhenaton from IAM: he rubbed shoulders with them all. “I don’t know an artist who isn’t inspired by Jean-Louis Foulquier,” assures Maryz Bessaguet. She met the host while she was still a press officer for record companies and accompanied certain artists in the Rochelais shows on Inter. “He directly impresses me with his charisma and his way of being. He knew how to put people at ease,” she recalls.

In 1989, four years after the creation of the Francofolies de La Rochelle, he called her to come and lend a hand to the festival team. The offices were still in Paris at this time. Then began nearly 15 years of joint work, during which she took care of relations with the press. “He was an artist, not a business man! “, she points out.

Unpublished archives

Maryz Bessaguet therefore devoted two years to the creation of this work “Our Foulquier Years” (Geste Éditions), “which is not a biography, but rather a packet of candy”, she insists. It is true that it is very pleasant to immerse yourself in it by opening a page at random and discovering, for example, a photo of the host surrounded by Jacques Villeret, Serge Gainsbourg and Coluche taken one evening on a show. Fortunately, the author also slipped in a few anecdotes and thus allows us to satisfy our curiosity.

The research work in the archives was tedious, particularly in the twists and turns of Radio France. “The selection was difficult, but I took the ones where there was the most happening. I wanted to shine the spotlight on her humanity, her freedom, her respect for difference, she says. In a new era where everyone no longer necessarily knows who the man behind the big scene Jean-Louis Foulquier is! »

Maryz Bessaguet also collected the letters that certain stars were kind enough to write in tribute to her death in 2013. “So… to Maître Foulquier… It was really for you that I came, It was really you who brought me made my first festival known,” writes Jane Birkin, for example. The former press officer added a photo of the singer, with her feet in the water, taken at the Francofolies in 2018, “and signed Xavier Léoty”, she slips in as a wink to the readers of Sud West. It makes you want to dig into candy again.