We inspected the (almost) finished works at the “Star Academy”

• On Saturday, the Vives-Eaux castle in Dammarie-les-Lys (Seine-et-Marne) will host a new season of

  Star Academy

  .

• 20 Minutes

  visited the new sets, from the theater to the dance hall and the kitchen on Thursday.

The countdown is on and there are no minutes to lose.

Saturday evening, the castle of Vives-Eaux in Dammarie-les-Lys (Seine-et-Marne) will reopen its doors to the

for a new season on TF1.

This Thursday morning, several media, including

, were invited to inspect the (almost) finished work.

It's time for the last strokes of paint, the installation of floor coverings and the final assembly of furniture.

The teams have been working since May to bring the site back to life.

The owner of the premises had closed the gate in 2007 and had left everything abandoned, only taking care of the maintenance of the park.

So there was a hell of a job to do to swallow the ravages of time.

"We are tenants, the owner has his say, but he did not refuse any of the facilities we offered, informs us Jean-Louis Blot, the director of Endemol who provides the guided tour.

We will have the obligation to restore everything at the end of the season, even if there is a new one.

Well inspired, the production has installed “false walls” in most of the rooms, which will simply have to be deconstructed to reveal the original walls.

Soothing colors, except in the theater room

The tour begins in one of the outbuildings.

In the office of the director of

, Michael Goldman, which also serves as a staff room, slate blue dominates the walls.

It goes well with wooden furniture and brown leatherette seats.

“ 

has long had a very flashy aesthetic.

There, the color codes are different, each piece has its own identity,” emphasizes Jean-Louis Blot.

The change of

is confirmed throughout the course: the soothing colors take over, the furniture and accessories completing the decor would not look out of place in a decoration magazine.

Bright red, however, remains in place in the theater.

A curtain, hangings, a stage and three rows of scarlet armchairs have been installed in one of the two-storey orangeries once used by the production teams.

For this new layout, one floor has been removed in order to increase the ceiling height.

In the past, the theater hall was located in the basement.

It was no longer usable.

A plan B for the dance hall

The charming glass roof which was formerly reserved for the dance classes was also not usable, the fault is deteriorated tiles.

For the anecdote: it was designed by Gustave Eiffel but, during the broadcast, its architecture was partly hidden by walls.

The production fell back in disaster on a prefabricated structure mounted close to the right wing of the castle.

This Thursday, it remained to install the heating and the linoleum.

“For it to be warmer on screen, we dressed the walls in wood and neon lights,” points out Jean-Louis Blot.

A stone's throw away, the second orangery has chosen summer colors, yellow and orange, to form the cocoon where the students will be able to rehearse.

A piano, drums and guitars await them.

On the wall, photos of former star academicians singing a duet with French and international stars will put them in the mood.

Head to the castle.

To the right, directly on entering, is the kitchen.

Pastel pink and green are upstaged by a bright fuchsia surrounding a huge slate where the students' weekly schedule is cut out.

To the left of the entrance, the very

living room , where the debriefings of the bonuses will take place, makes light blue communicate with electric blue.

On sunny days, light should bathe the space: unlike the Star Ac' of yesteryear, the windows are not obscured anywhere, the staradémiciens will always have a view of the outside.

Just opposite, a piano sits in the music room where guitars will also be available for a jam.

Very discreet cameras

Just before climbing the stairs, we note that the telephone space is still in place at its foot, with its timer.

Candidates will only have one minute of daily credit each for their phone calls.

A camera, attached to the banister, will miss nothing of their conversations.

The filming device, lighter, has about sixty cameras.

Nothing to do with the heavy equipment of twenty years ago.

The cameramen will only be present to film the lessons.

The other devices, including a drone, will be handled remotely… to better be forgotten.

Upstairs, the students will be divided into two bedrooms.

One, with six beds, giving pride of place to bottle green.

The second has seven beds, with cream and salmon notes, with three white fleece armchairs for extra comfort.

Green and salmon are also found in the two bathrooms, with a retro look, which accommodate a total of seven closed shower cubicles.

In one of the water features, an arrangement of mirrors is crossed by a neon sign writing “Take the time to smile”.

On the same floor are the interview room - do not speak of "confessional" - and the collective dressing room with sixteen cupboards... In the two toilets, new students can take the time to read the messages left on the marker by the star academicians of the other seven seasons of Dammarie-les-Lys.

This historical vestige is the only one that remains of the

before.

But he will remain safe from the indiscretion of the cameras...

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• Television

• Star Academy

• TF1

• Phone hook

• Ile-de-France

• Castle