Hired at Figaro Littéraire thanks to his mother’s property in Beaujolais, the late Bernard Pivot always knew how to fuel his passion for viticulture with literature, and vice versa.
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died this Monday, May 6 at the age of 89, the journalist and writer Bernard Pivot was an eminently popular literary figure, with his successful literary broadcasts (Apostrophes, Bouillon de culture… and his dictations), his participation in the Goncourt academy (from 2004 to 2019) and his passions for football (in green, as a supporter of Saint-Etienne) and wine: to which he dedicated a Love dictionary (Plon editions, 2006). Born in Lyon and raised in the Beaujolais vineyards, Bernard Pivot poses thus “the main thing: wine is culture. The cultivation of the vine, but also culture for the mind. »
A link that Bernard Pivot was able to take advantage of in 1958 to be hired at Literary figaro. Remembering then only reading Antoine Blondin, Aragon and Félicien Marceau, the young 23-year-old journalist managed to convince the editor-in-chief, Maurice Noël, thanks to the mention of Bernard’s mother’s wine estate in Beaujolais. Pivot, allowing supply of the Figaro in 10 liter barrels. “Caquillons” to be precise, its spelling can be useful in dictation… Playing with words, Bernard Pivot also gave them a graphic meaning. As aroma and “the logical presence of a circumflex on the o of aroma, which represents the perfume which rises from the circle of the drain, the neck or the glass” of wine he continues in his Wine lovers dictionary.
If you have to leave, don’t fear the drought
Leaving Le Figaro in 1974, Bernard Pivot offered his colleagues a tour of Beaujolais with this thought which he attributed to Confucius: “If you must leave, do not fear the drought along the way, rather fear the thirst of those who remain”. Bernard Pivot is gone, the thirst for wine and culture of those who remain have his broadcasts and his passion for wine to quench their thirst.
