He already has the first round of April 10, 2022 in mind.
"I'll be well dressed," promises the comedian, wearing a pork pie hat and a brown ascot in his house in the Loire Valley.
"I will go with a tricolor flag. I want to do it correctly," laughs Ian Moore, who became French four years ago.
Before the UK decided to leave the European Union (EU), few Britons applied for French nationality.
After all, with their passport, those who were established in France enjoyed almost the same rights as the French, with the notable exception of that of voting for the presidential election.
According to INSEE, only 300 Britons obtained French nationality each year between 2009 and 2015.
But 2016 was a turning point.
In the uncertainty surrounding the post-referendum period, some Britons preferred to take the lead, and applications for French nationality surged.
Ian Moore, "incredibly disappointed with what was happening in Britain", was one of them.
"I felt that this country no longer embodied my values, unlike the place where I lived", confides the one who settled with Natalie, his Franco-British wife, in France in 2005. The humorist jokes on stage about it: "I say that we came to France because it was the closest place to London where we could buy ourselves a house… Which is not so false!"
The procedure to obtain French nationality lasted until 2018 for Ian Moore.
That year, he and 3,267 compatriots across the Channel became French citizens.
The light at the end of a tunnel of paperwork and patience.
The following year, 4,088 other subjects of Her Majesty became French, thirteen times more than before the 2016 referendum. But 2018 was definitely the best year to become French: “We won the Football World Cup. see, there are plenty of advantages!”
A billboard at a bus stop in London announcing the end of the post-Brexit transition period, December 14, 2020. © Tolga Akmen, AFP
The far right, very little for him
Based in Berry, almost in the center of France, between the municipalities of Chabris and Selles-sur-Cher (Centre-Val de Loire region), Ian Moore manages three guest rooms, in addition to his career as a comedian. .
"Mister So British", as his neighbors nicknamed him, has long laughed at British politicians.
Now the political spectacle north of the Channel saddens him: "You can't satirize anymore. Every time you think they can't sink more or do more absurd, something happens."
Which does not mean that he considers French politics better, especially a few weeks before the first presidential election, during which he will be able to slip a ballot into the ballot box.
"I haven't decided yet if Eric Zemmour was a serious candidate or a joke, but he said he felt close to Boris Johnson," says the comedian, incredulous.
"I don't understand how, for anyone with a minimum of sane mind, this can be a winning vote. Boris Johnson doesn't seem to me to be highly respected in France, so I don't understand Zemmour's strategy. It's almost like if he wanted to sabotage himself, or pass for a caricature of a far-right candidate and split the Marine Le Pen vote. That seems strange to me.
Obtaining the right to vote for the French presidential election deprives Ian Moore of his comfortable status as a simple observer.
It's not the same story when it comes to choosing a side.
"It's like being a football fan in your chair, then all of a sudden someone throws a scarf at you, and you react by saying, 'But! That's not the one I want!' ."
One thing is certain for this new Frenchman: it's not his thing to follow the local trend, where the xenophobic extreme right has the ear of certain neighbors.
"I know that in the surroundings, we tend to populism. It leans towards Le Pen. But being the only immigrant, I find it a little insulting to be completely honest!", He bursts out laughing.
Comedian Ian Moore, here on stage.
This stand-up specialist moved to France in 2005 and obtained French nationality in 2018. © Courtesy Ian Moore
“The economy is doing better than some are willing to admit”
Ian Moore thinks of going "rather towards Emmanuel Macron, because I have seen how, from a rural point of view, things have changed".
"I know he had to work on that, be pushed in that direction because of the Yellow Vests movement, but it made a difference," he said.
The Yellow Vest protests began in late 2018, when motorists protested rising fuel prices.
Ian Moore is delighted with the positive changes that have since taken place in the small towns on the road to Vierzon, where he takes the train to Paris.
Villages still abandoned a few years ago breathe life again.
"These little villages - about half a dozen - were dying. There were no shops. Some didn't even have a bakery. There was nothing here, economically. But now every little village has its grocery store, its bakery. Some have bars, restaurants. A blues bar has opened in one of them. It's not huge, but it's signs that things are improving in rural areas And that's, I think, because the economy is doing better than some are willing to admit," Moore said.
"I have seen concrete changes. For me, you have to vote according to what you see," he adds.
Ian Moore believes that the outgoing president has more of that solemnity that the French appreciate in their representative on the world stage than his far-right competitors: "France is very sensitive, I think, to the way it is perceived in the world, to its power and to him who wields it."
The fear of deja vu
Father of three children, two of whom were born in France - "completely bilingual and without an accent", "very English in their attitude", but integrated as French -, Ian Moore has had to stay at home lately, between the pandemic of Covid-19 and an increasingly significant desire to spend more time with loved ones.
Now he travels less and writes more.
'Death and Croissants', Ian Moore's first crime novel, is about a British expat who runs bed and breakfasts in the Loire Valley when a crime occurs.
It was released last year and its sequel will arrive in July.
The circle is complete for the one whose French dream has come true: "When I came to this region for the first time in 1990 with Natalie, we were 19 years old. And the first day, I said 'everything I want is to retire here and write comical, undemanding novels. That's all I want to do'."
"And that's what I'm finally doing," he slips, well before retirement.
Ian Moore has just finished his third novel out of the six he has promised himself to write.
Fnac, Gare Montparnasse.
pic.twitter.com/hkyX2ioviM
— Ian Moore - Author, Comedian, Flâneur (@MonsieurLeMoore) January 21, 2022
The author jokes that he feels more French now that "Death and Croissants", his first thriller, has been translated.
"A Crime to Give Goosebumps" was released in French bookstores in January.
"Finally, my wife's French family thinks that I really do something in my life. It's a bonus," laughs Ian Moore.
Before 'Mister So British' dusts off his best Sunday suit to vote for the next president in April, one question remains: what will he do if his new compatriots should one day betray him in the same way as his native country did it in 2016?
Will he pack up again?
"If the French vote for an extremist, if they leave Europe, yeah. Zemmour, Le Pen, Mélenchon, any of these candidates. It would be like deja vu," replies Ian Moore.
"These are only populist ideals, they say they work for working families when they don't: in fact, it's only a question of lining their pockets. I would be really disappointed if the French fell into the trap."
"I don't know where I'm going next," adds the comedian, shivering at the thought.
“New Zealand looks pretty good…”
Adapted from the original English version by Nicolas Bamba.
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