Stéphane Bern is on the cover of the new issue of France Sunday released this Friday, September 2. The 58-year-old animator opened the doors of his new castle located in Thiron-Gardais in Center Val-de-Loire, 1h30 from Paris. He lives there with his companion Yori Baillères.
To appropriate this property that he has “bought at the price of a Parisian studio of 20m2”, Stéphane Bern had to do some renovations. The least we can say is that it was not a walk in the park for the host. “It was a ruin!he launched. It couldn’t be seen too much from the outside, but everything had to be redone inside. Not to mention that we had all the problems, in particular the dry rot which gnawed at the frame. So much so that it became a pharaonic construction site which put me a little on the straw…“
This is truly my refuge
If the animator was able to benefit from a little help on the financial side, he must however take up a major challenge: “It was the banks that paid, but this obliges me to work beyond 67 years to repay all that! But my great pride is to have refused all public aid. I did not receive any grant for the work. As a host on public service, I couldn’t afford it.“
Happy with his companion Yori, Stéphane Bern seems to be living his best life in his new home: “I take the time and I see people better than in Paris. When I was younger, I liked social events, big parties, but now it’s over! I’m going to be 59 and it happened to me. The very idea of putting on a suit and tie worries me. This is truly my refuge“, he confided to France Sunday. However, Yori imposed a change of scenery on him: “He installed a TV and made me buy a contemporary sofa, whereas before I had a small Napoleon III sofa, which I loved but which was stiff. On the other hand, do not touch the immeasurable collection of royal mugs in the kitchen or the autographed photos of crowned heads that adorn the office.“, he had confided to our colleagues from Paris Match last August.