In my family, there were four children. Two girls and two boys. I grew up in Sceaux, a rather bourgeois town, not very far from Paris. I had a very spoiled childhood, you know. My father had a display and window business, he left in the morning by metro to go to his workshop in the capital. My mother didn’t work, but she was a musician, she sang and played the piano wonderfully. At 4 or 5 years old, I would sit on her lap while she played Schumann or Schubert. You see this chance… Music has always mattered in my life.
As a teenager, I went to the public high school near my home but my aunt Françoise, who was a nun at Sainte-Marie de Neuilly, made me come to take classes there and I attended mass. I was already a dark dork (Smile)you know what I was doing? I put a bright red kerchief on my hair, out of provocation. The sisters said nothing but made me feel their disapproval. Subsequently, I became a high school Spanish teacher, inspired by an extraordinary teacher. I have a passion for Spain, I even bought, later, a small house in a village near Burgos, in Castile.
“My brother had an idea: “With this money, all you have to do is create a foundation.””
When my parents died, the inheritance was divided into four. But I told my brothers and my sister: “You just have to divide into three, I’m single, I don’t have children, while you have families. » I had no intention of receiving my share, I lived very well on my teaching salary. Honestly, I didn’t need a villa on the Côte d’Azur! But my brother Jean-Pierre did not agree. He had an idea: “With this money, all you have to do is create a foundation. »
At that time, I didn’t know what a foundation was. And then, the amount of my inheritance was not that high, 1,600,000 francs at the time (around €400,000, editor’s note). With this small capital, I never imagined that I could become a philanthropist! Well yes! No need to be rich, or to be called Madam Thing or Mr. Thing. I went to see the Fondation de France, which welcomed me with open arms. My story interested them, because it showed that you can be “small”, a simple teacher, and create a foundation. And there it was, it was gone!
I called my foundation “The Arts and Others”. It was in 1992. I wanted to make music and theater accessible to everyone: to children from working-class neighborhoods, to disabled people, to migrants, etc. This idea went back a long way. When I was a young girl, after the war, I helped manage the colonies of L’Haÿ-les-Roses, near Paris. The children came from poor families, and I realized one thing: in their homes, there were no books, no instruments, nothing. It had marked me. With my foundation, I wanted to put the arts within reach of the most disadvantaged.
“With my foundation, I wanted to put the arts within reach of the most disadvantaged”
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And we did so much! Hey, in prison, for example. One of our ideas was to offer dictionaries to inmates. It started in Fleury-Mérogis then thanks to the support of Larousse, the project extended to around thirty establishments. As we didn’t have a lot of money to spend on the foundation, we joined forces with partners. I will always remember a prisoner who, one day, threw himself into my arms. He didn’t really know what to do with the dictionary, so I asked him: “Which country do you come from? » We looked for the right page together. He saw the photos of his native land appear… And there, he threw himself into my arms. I forgot what his country was, but not this moment.
We also showed women in reintegration with the fashion designer Christian Lacroix. Not bad, right? It was beautiful: all these precarious women who suddenly found themselves in the spotlight, pampered, made-up! They had made the clothes themselves, it was a source of pride. And then, of course, the foundation organized plays in the neighborhoods, concerts with great pianists like Anne Queffélec,… It was incredible.
I only have one regret. I could not support SOS Méditerranée. You know the boat that saves migrants at sea. I had heard about their action during a meeting and I said to myself, what they are doing is great, I am going to help them! But when I spoke about it to the Fondation de France, they told me: “Madam, where are the arts in this? » Whoa, I didn’t like it at all! I was angry with them for at least eight days!
“That’s the shared heritage. I didn’t have children, but I met people, I had a good life”
But other than that, I had a blast. I have a happy temperament and this foundation has given me a lot, I have been extremely lucky. This is shared heritage. I didn’t have children, but I met many people, I was surrounded by people, I had a good life. It’s more difficult now, at 90 years old. (Silence.)
You see, what’s disappointing is that I don’t see anyone anymore. Even my neighbors don’t come. For example, a light bulb is missing from the ceiling light. When I meet my neighbor, I ask him if he can come up and change her, but he doesn’t come. Even my nephews don’t come much. To people, I became the old lady from down the hall. Hey, you know what? An association of forgotten aunts should be created. Well yes, today we take care of parents, the poor, the sick… But we don’t take care of forgotten aunts.
