LOVE FRANCE ❘ JOIE DE VIVRE


ON ÉCOUTE FLORENT PAGNY


The Voice coach is a major unit-shifter


La Balaiterie, in the Dieppe region of Normandy, creates a range of hand-pressed brooms of all shapes and sizes


PROFILE


A NEW BRUSH WITH SUCCESS


We fi rst brought the manually made traditional Sorghum (cereal crop) brooms of La Balaiterie to your attention a few years ago, when the Normandy-based company was at the fl edgling stage. Now we are delighted to revisit a fi rm sweeping all comers aside with an extended range and well- deserved success – with brooms now shipped as far as the USA. Using traditional machinery such as an ancient press as well as know-how taught by the last manufacturer of straw brooms in the Gard, committed ‘slow production’ advocates Arnaud and Marie-Laure Gabriel say each items requires 20 different stages of production.


The range includes long-handled brooms (from €69) with sculpted and personalisable handles, as well as smaller brushes, perfect for sweeping away a few leaves from the patio. We especially love the range of colourful aile de canard (duck wing) brushes, from €34. ● Explore the range of brooms at en.labalaiterie.fr


1 2


Singer-songwriter Florent Pagny is a household name in France thanks to a long career and a TV reality mentor role


If you have ever watched mainstream television in France on a Saturday night over the last decade or so, you will recognise one of the coaches on the hit amateur singing show The Voice – the French kept the original UK title but pronounce it, charmingly, “Ze Voice” – as Florent Pagny. While he is not well known in Anglophone circles for his singing career, in France he is a bona fi de hit maker and household name chanteur. Born in 1961 in Chalon-sur-Saône, Burgundy, Pagny moved to Paris aged just 16 years old, taking odd jobs,


while also taking acting and classical singing lessons. After a few small fi lm roles he stuck to singing and his fi rst composition, N’importe quoi, about the perils of drink and drugs, became a 1988 hit, with debut album Merci in 1990 seeing him enter the French public consciousness – aided, sans doute, by his relationship around this time with Vanessa Paradis. He has since gone on to sell over 15 million records. Pagny is a regular contributor to the annual charity concert Les Enfoirés, in aid of the Les Restos du Coeur charity. In January 2022, Pagny revealed he was suffering from lung cancer and cancelled a tour. In April this year he released his autobiography and, as we go to press, is still undergoing chemotherapy.


IF YOU LIKE THIS, YOU MIGHT LIKE…


MICHEL SARDOU Aged just 13, Pagny would sing hit songs


from the French crooner Sardou in local cafés. Best of


Mercury Records 3


CLAUDE NOUGARO


An acoustic tour in 2012 saw Pagny reprise the


Toulouse singer’s tunes. Les 50 Plus Belles Chansons Mercury


CALOGERO


Pagny has sung songs by, and alongside, his friend


the hitmaker Calogero – the pair share influences. Liberté Chérie Universal


INSTAFRANCE


For your chance to be featured, use #francetodaymagazine


1. Taking in Breton standing stones on a Quiberon bike ride, by fl owbreizh


2. Parisian landmark Au Lapin Agile, snapped by irrachampagne


3. The Loire’s Château du Lude, by Pierre Holley for chateauxethistoire


❯❯ Jun/Jul 2023 FRANCE TODAY ❘ 23


IMAGE © FLORENT PAGNY / FACEBOOK


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132