Singer and director Antoine always has one foot on land… and the other on the sea! Dividing his life between his home in Auvergne and his boat to explore the world, he evokes his attachment to the countryside and the French islands. Place(s) at Antoine’s France!
Anthony now devotes a good part of his activity to producing documentary films and writing books based on his travels. He hasn’t given up on the floral shirt since his famous headline Antoine’s Lucubrations in 1966 and claims his desire to show the beautiful things of this world.
For France Bluethe singer-songwriter and director looks back on his origins, describes how he settled in Auvergne and explains why the concept of holidays is a bit foreign to him…despite appearances!
First years overseas
Antoine was born in 1944 in Madagascar, in what was then overseas France. Following the professional changes of his father, the family then settled permanently in Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, then in Cameroon before returning to France at the end of the 1950s.
For us, France was a vacation. When we came back, we spent time in Vivario, my father’s native village in Corsica. But my mother, she was passionate about the Alps
Grenoble, the student city
Back from Cameroon, Antoine is studying in Grenoble. Student in preparatory Maths Sup and Maths Spé, he continues with the Central School before embarking on the song. It was in Grenoble that he bought the famous floral shirt that would later make his reputation.
Did she bring him luck? No doubt, judging by the dazzling success of its title Antoine’s Lucubrations which he wrote some time after this purchase.
I went to spend a few days with my girlfriend at the time in Grenoble. We found a corsage. It wasn’t a floral shirt, it didn’t exist for men. It was a women’s bodice that buttoned on the wrong side. I bought it. And then a few days later, I was writing lyrics to my song and it immortalized the flower shirt
His house in Auvergne: his island in the heart of nature
The explorer divides his life mainly between his home in Auvergne and his boat Banana Split with which he sails the seas of the world. His house in the heart of France, Antoine acquired it at a “when we dreamed of raising goats in the Larzac“, thanks to his first copyright, and the mayor of a small village.
All business ceasing, he took me to see a land, a property abandoned for 50 years that no one wanted anymore, that I bought, not for a pittance, but at a very reasonable price
Today, Antoine considers this haven of peace that he has occupied for almost 50 years as a “Isle“, he who has visited most of them, in France and across the planet. A property built in the heart of a “ocean of forests, with the Chaîne des Puys in the distance, and the cows and sheep that pass here and there“.
Holidays ? To do what ?
The travel documentary filmmaker does not divide his life between professional activity and vacation. “The concept of vacation, I don’t really have it because it’s not limited to a few weeks, it’s the whole life“, affirms Antoine, aware of the “sweet life” that his organization gives him, and recalling in passing that he has nevertheless produced 35 documentaries and around thirty books published by Gallimard.
I always say that I live on a very small apartment. The boat is as big as a small studio, but the garden is huge, it’s the planet
Antoine’s news:
Since mid-March, Antoine presents his new documentary about New Zealand in CGR cinemas in France, through screening/conference sessions.
All dates on Antoine’s website
An illustrated album of a hundred photographs accompanies this tour. Stopovers in New Zealand – Aotearoa was published by Gallimard editions.