"Brittany is like a muse for me", confides PPDA

Patrick Poivre d'Arvor on the steps of the Cannes film festival in May 2019. -

• PPDA releases this Wednesday “Brittany in the heart”, an intimate text in which he declares his love for his adopted region.

• Yet born in Reims, the former star presenter of the JT declares himself more Breton than the Bretons.

It has been twelve years now that the PAF's most famous trunk man bowed out.

But Patrick Poivre d'Arvor has not yet disappeared from the radar.

Since 2017, he has hosted the show

on CNews as well as the program

every summer on France 5. He also writes tirelessly with about twenty novels and almost as many stories, essays and biographies at its assets.

In

, his latest work to be released this Wednesday by Editions du Rocher, PPDA once again declares its love for Brittany, a “fiery and tempestuous, melodic and organic” region.

He evokes in turn his childhood memories in the family home of Trégastel, the legends that populate Brittany or the crossed personalities and who marked him, such as Olivier de Kersauzon, Yann Quéfellec or chef Olivier Roellinger.

Where does this irrepressible need to write about Brittany come from?

Brittany is not a subject that we exhaust.

As the poet Xavier Graal put it so well, it is multiple in its secret unit.

In my novels, Brittany does indeed come back quite often, fleetingly, but it is still very present.

I had also written a

on Brittany, which was a fairly exhaustive and almost scientific work.

There, I wanted something more sentimental and more intimate.

You say that Brittany is like a muse for you?

It is true that I feel this land as my muse.

Because it inspires and attracts me, like the fairy Morgane.

When we come once in Brittany, we go back there.

We also realized this during confinement where there was a surge of city dwellers on our coasts.

The people needed Brittany.

You were born in Reims but you claim to be more Breton than the Bretons.

Aren't you afraid to get angry with some?

No, because the Bretons are quite welcoming.

They easily say that one can be Breton from the ground, Breton by blood or Breton by heart.

My father had Breton origins and my mother was born in Nantes which is for me in Brittany.

I was born in Reims, far from it all.

I was impatiently awaiting the summer holidays to find this Brittany again.

It is precisely this lack and this uprooting that made this passion even more ardent.

You are very attached to Trégastel and the Côte de Granit Rose…

It is my intimate and family stronghold, where I feel good.

But I like to roam the region up and down because I don't yet know every nook and cranny.

I am also planning to do a little bike trip soon between Roscoff and Concarneau, from the northern tip to the southern tip of Finistère.

Do you manage to remain discreet when you return?

People know me well now in Trégastel.

And the Bretons are very modest people, I really like that about them.

When they ask me for selfies or autographs, they always do it gently.

Finally, a word on the departure of Jean-Pierre Pernault ...

At least things went well because there was a will on both sides.

It was done in a much smarter way than for my departure or that of Claire Chazal.

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