Posted at 12:00 p.m.
That day, he had just cleaned the chicken coops of his father-in-law’s poultry farm. “I lend a hand on occasion, it changes me from my job [d’acteur] “, testifies the one who embodies the sergeant-detective Yves Jacob about his participation in the family business.
Marc Fournier has found his playground, his natural space, his favorite place to settle down and live to the rhythm of time. “Away from the orange cones of the city! “, he quips.
Like many other city dwellers suffocated by the pandemic confinement, it was at the end of winter 2020 that he felt the powerful need to get out of the city to breathe some fresh air.
“He’s my father-in-law [Marcel Lampron] who gave me the signal. He told me: “There is work on the farm and you can come if you want.” Due to COVID-19, there was no filming. I had a lot of free time. »
Everything happened naturally. “I already had a place to stay,” he explains. A few years earlier, I had helped build a small house adjoining the farm buildings. I went there from time to time with my wife and our two children. »
And there was the “wood shop” where the actor, who will be 49 on February 4, had got into the habit, long before the health crisis, of going to get his hands dirty by putting his craftsmanship to work. .
“I couldn’t ask for better,” he agrees. I had access to a very nice workshop with all the tools to express myself, the saw bench, the moulder, the sandblaster, the jointer, the wood knives. »
PHOTO OLI CROTEAU, THE NEWSLETTER
Marc Fournier has found his playground, his natural space, his favorite place to settle down and live to the rhythm of time. “Away from the orange cones of the city! “, he quips.
In town, I focus on my job. In Saint-Étienne-des-Grès, I become a chicken breeder, I am a welder, I drive a tractor, a van; I have boots full of mud, dusty clothes!
Marc Fournier, actor
A return to basics
You have to understand that it is a homecoming for the native of Cap-de-la-Madeleine who left the Trois-Rivières region, at the age of 18, to go and study at CEGEP in Montreal.
“At the time, I wanted to discover the big city, I felt cramped in my hometown,” he says in retrospect. We guess that his look has evolved over the years.
“I’m rediscovering my region, I love this environment made up of forests, lakes, rivers, the Saint-Maurice, wide open spaces. »
But there is no question, at least for the next few years, of returning to live full time in your part of the country. “I’m not saying it’s impossible, but my family and I — he and his spouse have two children aged 13 and 18 — we really like this in-between, this life shared between city life and country life,” says the actor who lives in Vieux-Longueuil.
In Saint-Étienne-des-Grès, he lived on the second floor of a small 24′ x 24′ house which housed his father-in-law Marcel’s office on the ground floor.
“It’s not luxury, it’s a bit like our chalet. We have everything you need to be comfortable. »
A wood craftsman
In Mauricie, “investigator Yves Jacob” spends a lot of time in his “wood shop” where he makes pine furniture from trees that have been cut on nearby land.
He opens a parenthesis here to talk about the orderly management of the forest and the importance of selective cutting. “We want there to still be trees in 50 years,” he hopes.
He has fiber. He likes to know where the resource comes from. This allows him to explain to his clients the steps that go into making a table, a piece of furniture, a bed frame.
PHOTO OLI CROTEAU, THE NEWSLETTER
In Mauricie, “investigator Yves Jacob” spends a lot of time in his “wood shop” where he makes pine furniture from trees that have been cut on nearby land.
Each creation is unique, I never make the same model. I always tell my clients: “The result is not guaranteed, but I will make sure it is to your liking!”
Marc Fournier, actor
It is mainly 30-35 year olds who place orders with him. “They like wood because it’s durable. They don’t want to know anything about prefabricated furniture à la IKEA! »
Some show up at his “shop” without knowing that they will find themselves face to face with the police investigator… “After five or ten minutes of chatting, they throw me like this: “Excuse me, are you Yves Jacob? And that’s when tongues loosened and the conversation took a completely different turn. »
In this regard, Marc Fournier knows very well that success and popularity can quickly become fleeting. “It can change quickly in this job, but for the moment, I appreciate how things are going in my life, he summarizes. I’m also lucky to have acquired the necessary maturity to experience this, with my character in District 31.”
It is not without reason that he became attached to his Saint-Étienne-des-Grès. “Here, I am Marc Fournier, not Yves Jacob. I like the contact with people, their approachability. And I take into account the advice of experienced people who come to see me at the workshop. »
His father’s fishing lodge
In addition to having his pied-à-terre in the countryside, Marc Fournier has a small fishing camp in the woods with his brother.
“It’s a log cabin that my father bequeathed to us when he died,” he says. My brother and I go there every summer. We have an emotional attachment. »
PHOTO OLI CROTEAU, THE NEWSLETTER
Marc Fournier, Line Lampron, Lise Bournival and Marc Lampron
The family fishing camp in the MRC of Mékinac, in Haute-Mauricie, is not at the door. “It takes me a good five hours to get there. [à partir de Longueuil], he said. But it’s worth it! Highway 55 [qui longe la rivière Saint-Maurice] is so beautiful, with the forest and the mountain around. »
It is this Mauricie, the one where he went to tease the fish with his father, in another life, that he wishes to pass on to his children. And obviously they have already started following in his footsteps. “They almost became better anglers than me! “, he launches with a certain parental pride.