13 Hours of TF1: at the heart of the Tour de France by Marie-Sophie Lacarrau

"To your health and to 13h00!"

»Thursday, December 3, a month almost to the day before her very first newscast on TF1, Marie-Sophie Lacarrau, future replacement for Jean-Pierre Pernaut gets off the TGV for a visit to the local office of the chain in Lyon (Rhône).

It is the penultimate stage of his Tour de France of the 19 teams of regional correspondents who provide 80% of the subjects of the mid-day newspaper of the front page.

Since arriving on La Une at the beginning of November and leaving France 2, she has traveled successively to Lille, Strasbourg, Marseille, Nice, Nantes, Bordeaux, Montpellier and Toulouse, her favorite city, the one where she studied after her baccalaureate .

Covid-19 requires, no restaurant.

Tables were set up for her in the garage of the premises of Villeurbanne (Rhône) between an old satellite vehicle and shelves full of cameras.

Without fuss, the sparkling 45-year-old journalist who claims her Aveyron origins and her new colleagues savor a meal of local products: Puy lentil salad and Savoyard cheeses.

All washed down of course with a glass of Côtes-du-Rhône!

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The twenty members of the team hurry to discuss with their new boss accompanied by Caroline Henry, co-editor of the 13 Hours.

Usually traveling, Thierry Thuillier, big boss of the news, got stuck in Paris, to pilot the special editions for the death of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.

"Neither Macron nor Donald Trump, the weather"

Even journalists who only work a few days a month made the trip.

For them too, the departure of what everyone calls “Jean-Pierre” after 33 years of service is an event.

Pernaut is their model, whether they are thirty years old or thirty years in the profession.

They share his vision of journalism.

“Jean-Pierre has understood for a long time that the first topic of conversation for people when they cross paths at the market is neither Macron nor Donald Trump, it's the weather.

Journalists who have not integrated that do not understand France well… ”says a cameraman of English origin, who scrutinizes the clouds every autumn so as not to miss the report on the first snows of the Alps.

“I just came to tell you: don't change anything!

»Marie-Sophie Lacarrau launched to TF1 correspondents in Lyon-Villeurbanne.LP / Nicolas Foray  

For coffee, everyone goes up to the first floor, in the newsroom.

The Lyonnais are showing their two guests a compilation of their best reports: mouflons who climb the slopes of Mont-Blanc, the discovery of the Chauvet cave in the gorges of the Ardèche, a vertiginous descent in paragliding, the joy of the supporters of the Groupama Stadium de Lyon or - idea of ​​Jean-Pierre Pernaut - immersion in a village chosen by chance by throwing a dart at a road map.

"As you can see, it is a very large and varied region," recalls Jacques Rieg-Boivin, the site supervisor.

“For you, Parisians, the Alps seem close, but they are at least 2h30 by car.

So don't let us know too late if you want a subject for the same day, ”says a cameraman.

"Life in the villages, I am attached to it"

“I would have liked to be in your place.

Your subjects move me.

They talk to me, who for years presented regional newspapers to France 3. Life in the villages, I am attached to it deep down, ”says Marie-Sophie Lacarrau, touched by a report on a Swiss who makes raclette cheese, on a farm lost in the mountains.

“I just came to tell you: don't change anything!

Neither the way you tell the stories nor the respect with which you meet the characters you are honoring!

We need to stay close to the land and our traditions, ”adds the journalist.

Everyone in attendance nods, relieved of this editorial status quo.

“Thanks to the 13 Hours, we made extraordinary encounters.

We discover sincere people everywhere, with whom we experience moments of emotion and truth.

That's why we always want to go and shoot, ”replied a reporter from Dijon, who came as a neighbor.

"We make speak the French who never speak, we do not want the opinion of the powerful or experts we already know!

One of her colleagues bid.

“All of this will continue!

I come from France 2 on my own, without anyone in my suitcases.

I am going to work with the whole team of Jean-Pierre Pernaut whom you know better than me, ”continues Marie-Sophie Lacarrau, who has finished dispelling suspicions in less than half an hour.

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"Will we always have to do our annual topic on the Andros trophy?"

»Asks one of the latest arrivals treacherously, already aware that Pernaut is crazy about this car race on ice.

Marie-Sophie Lacarrau smiles.

“We are continuing the SOS Villages and Your Plus Beau Marché operation.

I would just like us to take a little more interest in purchasing power and the environment our children talk about so much, ”she says.

"What about the various facts?

There will soon be the trial of Nordahl Lelandais in the region… ”asks another.

“The various facts are more for the 20 Hours, we do not do much.

Family stories don't concern us too much… ”she says, pulling on her coat.

The team insisted that she go to Croix-Rousse before her train home.

“With the weather, I'm sure we'll see the mountains in the distance,” says the cloud specialist.

Enough to give Marie-Sophie Lacarrau a boost, before the countdown begins.

On December 18, Jean-Pierre Pernaut will bid farewell.

From January 4, it is the viewers that she will have to convince that nothing has changed.