Paris (AFP)
Journalist Georges Pernoud, at the helm for more than 40 years of the television magazine devoted to the sea, the program "Thalassa", has died at the age of 73, his family told AFP on Monday morning.
This sea enthusiast created this magazine with exceptional longevity in 1975 and hosted it from 1980 to 2017, on FR3 which later became France 3. He has long gathered millions of viewers each week, with this program prepared on a barge -studio moored on the banks of the Seine.
"He died (Sunday) in a hospital in the Paris region following a long illness," his daughter Fanny Pernoud told AFP.
In 2017, following programming changes that he deplored, Georges Pernoud preferred to leave the ship and presented his last issue on June 30 in duplex in Saint-Malo, a city dear to the show.
France 3 had then paid homage "to the one who, through its 1,704 issues of + Thalassa + since September 25, 1975, led with the writing of + Thalassa + high quality reports and surveys on the world of the sea and those who live on it ".
Meeting with fishermen, discovery of archipelagos, reports on the Route du rhum, but also on rescues of migrants, on tuna fishing or on dolphinariums .. the program addressed "all areas on a blue background", the gray haired host liked to say.
Two "Thalassa" reports were awarded the Albert-Londres Prize in the 90s.
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