Field journalist then storyteller of various facts, Christophe Hondelatte masters like no one else the art of telling stories.
A talent that comes to him from his youth, he explains on Saturday at the microphone of Europe 1, evoking the debate club of his parish and the reports he made to his friends.
INTERVIEW
His tone and tone of voice are recognizable among a thousand.
Unparalleled storyteller and expert in various facts at Europe 1, Christophe Hondelatte has been refining his art of telling stories for several decades.
"The trigger for all of this was the many field reports I did in my youth. When I got home, I loved telling my friends about my highlights, my amazing adventures," he smiles at Isabelle's microphone on Saturday. Morizet.
"I discovered a passion for the chaplaincy debate"
Another milestone in his career as a journalist had already been taken a few years earlier, when he was still a teenager.
Originally from the Basque country, Christophe Hondelatte then attended the parish of his small village near Bayonne.
"I discovered a passion for debate in the chaplaincy. It was in the 1970s, the air of Vatican II [the 1962 council which renewed and rejuvenated the Catholic Church] was still blowing", relates l 'animator.
He sighs: "This type of chaplaincy no longer exists today."
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He remembers priests "in jeans and t-shirts" who "spoke like young people" and stimulated them a lot.
"We organized social debates on love, life, money. We led them ourselves from the fourth grade."
Thanks to these lively discussions, he learned from his teenage years to express himself in public and to manage his speaking time.
"This is exactly the job I do today. I learned it from this pastor who is still alive and with whom I am still in contact."
For Christophe Hondelatte, the origin of his vocation is clear: "Everything was born in the friendly circle."