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00:08 Geneviève de Fontenay,
00:10 historical president of the Miss France
00:12 died this Wednesday, August 2,
00:14 at the age of 90.
00:16 [music]
00:18 Back to the life of this woman
00:20 who, by force of abnegation
00:22 and determination,
00:24 made the beauty contest a real institution.
00:26 [music]
00:28 The lady with the Sen hat is gone.
00:30 This Wednesday, August 2,
00:32 C.S.T. with a huge sadness
00:34 that Xavier de Fontenay
00:36 announced in a telegram
00:38 the disappearance of his mother.
00:40 [music]
00:42 Miss Elegance 1957
00:44 is no longer there,
00:46 he said.
00:48 The historical president of the Miss France
00:50 died at the age of 90.
00:52 [music]
00:54 Already a few months before his disappearance,
00:56 the mother of Ludovic and Xavier
00:58 revealed that her days were counted
01:00 in a heartbreaking letter
01:02 where she claimed that her health
01:04 was declining little by little.
01:06 [music]
01:08 However, the one who was in eternal rivalry
01:10 with Sylvie Tellier
01:12 was ready to leave in peace.
01:14 [music]
01:16 I am proud to have made Miss France
01:18 a brand of glamour that crosses time.
01:20 [music]
01:22 I feel like I can leave
01:24 in peace, she wrote.
01:26 [music]
01:28 It must be said that as El Sen
01:30 congratulated herself, she had
01:32 managed to make this little contest
01:34 of the post-war a real institution
01:36 of the 21st century.
01:38 [music]
01:40 An organization within
01:42 which she had seen more than 50 Miss France
01:44 different shows.
01:46 [music]
01:48 Aesthetician and president
01:50 of the Miss France Society
01:52 on August 30, 1932
01:54 in Longueuil, in Morte-et-Moselle,
01:56 the defendant was born under the full name
01:58 of Geneviève Suzanne Marie Thérèse Mühlmann.
02:00 [music]
02:02 It was only at the age of 22
02:04 when she met
02:06 her companion Louis Poirot
02:08 that she finally became Madame de Fontenay.
02:10 [music]
02:12 Indeed, the latter had the habit
02:14 of being called as a
02:16 resistant during the occupation.
02:18 [music]
02:20 A man 30 years older
02:22 than she is and with whom she stayed
02:24 until her last breath,
02:26 on March 16, 1981.
02:28 [music]
02:30 Together they even had
02:32 two children, Ludovic,
02:34 who committed suicide on March 30, 1984,
02:36 and Xavier,
02:38 now 59 years old.
02:40 [music]
02:42 First trained in the profession
02:44 of esthetician, Geneviève de Fontenay
02:46 had joined the Miss France Committee
02:48 as Secretary General
02:50 in 1954.
02:52 [music]
02:54 Elected Miss Elegance
02:56 in 1957,
02:58 while she was a mannequin at Balenciaga,
03:00 she had then become the assistant
03:02 of her companion Louis when he
03:04 had been appointed General Delegate
03:06 of the Committee in 1962.
03:08 [music]
03:10 So it was at the death of the latter
03:12 that she took over the reins,
03:14 making the Miss France Committee
03:16 what it is today.
03:18 [music]
03:20 A success that she owes to her wise decision,
03:22 in 2002, to sell the commercial
03:24 and television part of her company
03:26 to the company Handemolle France,
03:28 which was then producing Star Academy.
03:30 [music]
03:32 A woman of ambition
03:34 and character,
03:36 whose frank speech has earned her
03:38 many controversies.
03:40 [music]
03:42 [music]
03:44 [music]
03:46 Please take my soul, do your thing with all the lights on.
03:54 Keep, keep, take a chance, keep, keep, take a chance.
04:00 You can just keep it here and make it mean nothing to me.
04:10 Your lips next to my nose, open your eyes, they make things right.
04:19 But I still want to keep on.
04:25 Oh, I know I still want to keep on.
04:29 I have a thing, keep it up.
04:32 I have a ring, make it tight.
