100 years of Miss France: Geneviève de Fontenay, an angry lady

The Lady with the Hat opens her door and holds out her hand to us, on the ground floor of a quiet and luxury residence in Saint-Cloud (Hauts-de-Seine).

“But Geneviève, the virus…”.

"I don't have germs," ​​she smiles as if that definitely fixes the problem.

She never used a certificate.

"My mask is my hat", she slices, never stingy with a good word.

Anyway, at 88, she goes out less and less.

The wicked steep slope to his building is felt.

Since her last election as Miss National Prestige in 2016, six years after having slammed the door of Miss France in 2010, because she found that the production company Endemol, to which the brand was sold in 2002, did not respect its values, her idea of ​​elegance and morality, she has disappeared from the radar.

The end of the year should have marked his return and a nice farewell: TF 1 wanted to invite him on December 19 to the election of Miss France, which celebrates the centenary of beauty contests in France.

Frédéric Gilbert, artistic producer of the show, did everything to attract her: “She knew us all, she was in the comfort zone.

But our proposals have remained a dead letter.

"

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Geneviève de Fontenay refuses to participate in the 100 years of the competition

The Lady in the Hat is fuming, with the same arguments as fifteen years ago: "I will never go back there in my life."

It no longer has a soul.

Not all candidates have the same opportunities.

The real folk costumes have disappeared, ”she blurted out, showing us her ceramics from Longwy (Meurthe-et-Moselle), her native region, on a buffet in the living room.

She exchanged final scathing texts with Sylvie Tellier, ex-Miss France who succeeded her at the head of the competition.

“Sylvie, she stole my life from me.

Do you think she is entitled to celebrate a centenary?

It would rather be me… ”breathes or hisses the recluse of Saint-Cloud.

The true centenary, the height of the outrage, would be in 2028 and not in 2020. It is slipped to her that it does not matter so much, that many fans would have liked to see her again a week before this rather sad Christmas.

She sweeps away as in the days of her splendor: "I am not going to bring them my notoriety ..."

"She must be very lonely and not very happy"

Sylvie Tellier, used to invectives, was right: “I just wanted to honor him.

We were supposed to have lunch together recently.

I only have respect for what she did ”.

Jean-Pierre Foucault, the historical presenter, who tweets while parodying himself as Geneviève, replied by text: "She must be very alone and not very happy ... Alas, her convoluted and repetitive remarks separated her from those who loved him ... including me!

"

Roll on the Misses!

Soon on @ TF1 ... 🤪 pic.twitter.com/BIOFan6BpI

- Jean-Pierre Foucault (@Foucault_JP) November 17, 2020

The former Miss Elegance has always loved the fight, but who still wants to cross swords with it?

Even Sonia Rolland, Miss France 2000, a very close friend, who keeps her all her affection, received volleys of green wood from vengeful SMS: “Geneviève, I call her the angry woman… But she's kinda my mother .

She helped me a lot at the time by explaining to me that beauty is not enough, that only work pays.

She was very modern, she defended gays before everyone else, even if today, she no longer has this image

.

For my twentieth and hundredth birthday, I would love to go down the stairs with her on TF 1. This summer, I felt in her eyes that she wanted to come.

And then she said no.

It must be very hard for her to grow old without the Misses.

It has nourished itself for so long on their youth ”.

Sonia Rolland and Elodie Gossuin (center) still have affection for Geneviève de Fontenay despite angry SMS.

AFP / Gérard Julien  

Elodie Gossuin, Miss France 2001, her other darling, says the same thing: “Geneviève should have accepted.

She would have needed it, this light, this love.

This is its place.

Her disagreements, she could have expressed them live.

I respect his decision, but it's sad.

Instead of a tribute full of emotion, she will watch the election at home and alone ”.

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Why refuse?

Some argue that Xavier, her son, did not want her to come on the set, even if her mother formally denies it.

He called us less than an hour after his mother's interview, furious: "What, are you going to talk about her again, and never about me?"

Both love the light.

After the death in 1981 of Louis de Fontenay, who had created this competition in 1947, his son Xavier held the managerial bar - Geneviève is only interested in the artistic - negotiated the rights of the first TV broadcasts, then Very well sold the Miss France brand in 2002. But his mother remained until 2010. He was quickly ousted.

He never digested it.

“Complex” relationship with his son Xavier

Geneviève de Fontenay with her son Xavier, who sold the Miss France brand to Endemol in 2002. LP / Guy Gios  

The Fontenay clan has always been complicated, painful, ferocious.

Xavier lives on the same hill in Saint-Cloud, but at the top, in a much more luxurious property.

He is much richer than she: he received 90% of the sale estimated at 6 million euros, she 10%.

And again, half of her share was placed for her granddaughters.

Many sentences of his, thrown over the phone, harsh, cannot be repeated.

His mother walks on eggshells when it comes to this angry son.

“She can get aggressive when you're digging.

She keeps this family secret, ”confides a relative.

An older son, depressed, died shortly after the patriarch.

Behind the glitter of the misses, so much family darkness.

Xavier, each time he has been informed of a call made by us to a relative of his mother, will send us a mocking or vindictive message.

While refusing to tell us about her.

Apart from a few cowards.

Classical music, BFMTV and… Eric Zemmour

It goes better between women.

Adèle, the granddaughter, came to the interview with her "grandma".

Xavier's wife does him services.

“Annie is wonderful”: there is at least one mother-in-law who is happy with her daughter-in-law.

She lives alone, listens to classical music - "I have a record player" -, does her housework.

“Okay, I'm not dirtying.

I was the oldest of ten siblings.

I know how to run a house ”.

The ironing board she used for her galas is stored in a corner of the living room.

In the kitchen, she cites as a favorite dish the potato omelet, "the only recipe she knows how to make", according to a relative.

The days go by in front of the not very new TV set up in the kitchen - "my nest, I practically only live there" -, especially BFMTV and CNews in the evening.

She adores Eric Zemmour.

The former fan of Arlette Laguiller is difficult to follow politically, but she is fueled by controversy.

She has long texted Emmanuel Macron: “I had his cell phone.

I asked her if I wasn't texting her too many.

He said to me: No

… ”she smiles.

But the President apparently changed his number.

Geneviève even got angry with the other Geneviève, Leblanc, her soulmate for sixty years, a former model and right-hand man at the head of the Miss France committee.

90 years old, this one has the same banter as her younger sister of a year or two: “Angry?

No… I like my blankie.

She doesn't have any friends, it's true.

Ah well, she does not go to 100 years on TF 1?

It must have really smoked with Sylvie… Too bad.

She should have, that would do her good.

Miss France, it's her, totally.

She bought the models, invented this style, imposed her values ​​”.

"I don't need much ..."

The other Geneviève bursts out laughing when one is worried about Madame de Fontenay's isolation, her family problems, even money: “She is not unhappy.

She eats like a bird and only buys clothes for each earthquake ”.

The woman does not say anything else: “My outfits last for years.

As it is classic, it does not change.

I only have two hats, the white and the black.

We only change the ribbon.

The felt does not move, like my skull, ”she smiles, regaining her mischief.

“She's really not a woman of money,” confirms Sonia Rolland.

What does she really live on, beyond her kitty?

A pension of 1,400 euros: “In 2017, I was not even taxable.

But I don't need much.

Me, I like people.

It's the people, my food, ”she jokes.

During her last galas, she did not hesitate to cross France by train for a signing session paid at 1,500 euros, or an advertisement, enough to put butter in the frozen potatoes, or even pay the rent.

She has never owned a property.

The life of an acrobat on the roads, which narrows into a dead end.

Adèle de Fontenay, 24, would like to write a book about her grandmother, with whom she has remained very close.LP / Aurélie Ladet  

"She only lives for the press, and the press is becoming scarce," recognizes Hubert Guérin, her young press officer, a fan.

This eternal kid laughs at an obituary that appeared on her by mistake: “A media monument… A somewhat difficult end of life.

Well.

His own press release announcing his disappearance is already ready, it seems.

She asks us for news of Michel Drucker, who has had heart surgery: “We started together.

I would like to spend one last time in "Vivement dimanche" before I go ... "she says.

“I have the anguish of death.

»To vibrate again, with this attitude always proud.

This stubbornness that makes her endearing.

Adèle, her 24-year-old granddaughter, would like to write a book with her, to get to know her better.

Because Geneviève Mulmann, who became Madame de Fontenay after meeting Louis, remains largely a mystery.

“Without my hat, I am nothing,” she once said.

His childhood in a large and very traditional family in Lorraine.

The climb to Paris.

The difficulties of the first years, his secrets too, until his brief career as a beautician and his meeting at 22 with the man of his life.

In memory of the Miss France committee and her husband

With Louis, Geneviève de Fontenay (here in 1963) will take over the Miss France committee.

Agip / Bridgeman Images  

Together, they will make Miss France, one small competition among others, a glamorous brand that crosses the generations.

He, her only love, died in 1981. But what struck Myriam Stocco, Miss France 1971, was Geneviève's reaction: “He died in front of her, of a pulmonary embolism, on a Wednesday or a Thursday.

She was devastated.

But on Saturday, she performed the gala, even though she was crying backstage.

His passion is Miss France above all.

She only needs her audience.

She now lives in the memory of Louis and his museum-apartment, with six tons of press clippings ”.

In an old library in the living room, one distinguishes, like old grimoires, leather bindings with golden letters "Comité Miss France" on the edge.

Moreover, while she no longer has any activity related to beauty contests or galas for several years, and she has given almost all the dresses to Emmaüs, her name on the intercom still indicates “Geneviève de Fontenay , President of the Miss France Committee ”.

“He will die with me the Miss France Committee.

There are no more elections but I am still the President ”, insists the former queen of this show.

Saturday December 19, the President will be in front of her TV, in her kitchen.

To bitch about the decoration, the light, the songs, the order of passage, the supposed injustices, but to watch the Misses.

Her Misses, whether she knows them or not, for eternity.

Bio Express

August 30, 1932:

birth in Longwy (Meurthe-et-Moselle)

December 22, 1947:

Louis de Fontenay takes over the Miss France competition, headed by Le Parisien Libéré.

1952:

Geneviève Mulmann meets Louis de Fontenay.

She becomes the soul of the Misses.

1981:

death of Louis de Fontenay.

His son Xavier succeeds him from his mother.

1986:

first television broadcast, on FR3, with the election of Nathalie Marquay.

2002:

Xavier de Fontenay sells the Miss France brand to the production company Endemol.

Geneviève continued to lead the election until a sudden break in 2010.

2016:

she presides for the last time in her dissident contest, Miss Prestige National.