And the winner of Miss France 2020 is… Amandine Petit!
This result crowns a very special evening, because it was organized in the particular context of the Covid-19 epidemic, without the usual stay of the candidates abroad and in a Grand Carrousel in Puy-du-Fou (Vendée) without an audience or almost because of the sanitary measures.
To begin with, we forgive her because she is a certain age: for her centenary, Miss France appears on TF1 with a good eight minutes late, at 9:13 p.m.
A direct that begins in emotion, with the parade of former beauty queens: Sonia Rolland, Iris Mittenaere, Linda Hardy, Muguette Fabris, the oldest consecrated, in 1963 ...
The 29 candidates of this 2021 election will follow them on the disco of "We Are Family".
"The Miss are a big family", affirms in the wake Sylvie Tellier, patron of the organization, by way of introduction, after recalling that this ceremony respects a very strict sanitary protocol.
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There are only 86 people in the audience.
Whatever, the show is on the huge stage and it is the historic master of ceremonies who launches it, Jean-Pierre Foucault in a suit of light, a sparkling tuxedo jacket which makes Sylvie Tellier happy: "You are from a chic tonight!
She slips.
Sometimes dented routes
Here we go for the show: videos presenting the candidates (interspersed with very kitsch paintings).
Their names are Lara, Laura, Léa, Julie or Diane and want to become a doctor, dancer, lawyer or journalist.
Many evoke the “challenge” (not very French, that) that this evening represents.
And they tell of their sometimes battered journey: thyroid cancer, bullying, overweight ...
After a video summary of their stay in Versailles, comes the table of regions.
Which reminds us that we are in Puy-du-Fou: the Misses follow one another around a swimming pool where fire-eaters are unleashed, where junk Musketeers bang hard on golden drums, where dancers snort on a track covered with water.
A deluge of colors and flames to wait before the start of serious business.
The tears of Clémence Botino
Fifteen semi-finalists are known around 11:15 p.m.
All then have the right to one minute to present their “values” and their “ambitions”.
A cascade of clichés quickly forgiven as the exercise turns out to be delicate and stressful.
And it is not Jean-Pierre Foucault who will say the opposite.
He who, his voice flanking downright at times, will be forced to remind the time limit for the many candidates invaded by stage fright.
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Shortly after, the tears of Clémence Botino, Miss France in title for a few more minutes, her moving sincerity when she tells about her special year marked by the epidemic and the fire in her apartment brings naturalness back to the show.
On the show side, the Puy-du-Fou teams come back regularly to deliver the package, between restless choreographies or historical sequences, with carriages, horses and actors in wigs.
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At 11:50 pm, we finally know the five finalists: Alsace, Provence, Burgundy, Côte d'Azur and Normandy.
They will then lend themselves to the difficult exercise of the questions asked by the members of the jury, composed only of ex-Miss.
A jury which seems, during its deliberations, very divided ("This evening, it is not easy to decide between them", launch in chorus the jurors).
Elodie Gossuin emphasizes “the freshness and authenticity” of the five finalists.
However, we had to choose.
