In front of more than 7.5 million viewers, Rachel Legrain-Trapani, Vaimalama Chaves, Clémence Botino, Nathalie Marquay-Pernaut, Elodie Gossuin, Sophie Thalmann, Corinne Coman, Laetitia Bléger, Iris Mittenaere and dozens of other Miss France came to pay tribute to Geneviève de Fontenay. The lady in the hat, who masterfully directed the Miss France competition until 2010, died this summer at the age of 89. Despite all the friction that she experienced with the Miss France company from the moment she left, and all the conflicts that opposed her to Sylvie Tellier and Jean-Pierre Foucault in particular, the production wanted to pay her a last tribute, which many of Miss welcomed with emotion. An emotion that seems not to have been shared by Sylvie Tellier, whose icy attitude shocked.
Sylvie Tellier shocked the public on many levels: initially, the president of the ceremony was the only one not to adopt an outfit identical to all the other Misses, who had come dressed in black and white, which were the two colors dear to Geneviève de Fontenay; in a second time, Sylvie Tellier refused to take Sophie Thalmann’s hand, even though all the other Misses who preceded and followed her, all took hands. Furthermore, his tone icy, without emotion, the air constrained and forcedhighlighted by many viewers on the Web, caused a huge reaction and shocked thousands on X.
“I thought it was Beyoncé”
The former president of the Miss France company, who left her position last year and delegated it to Cindy Fabre, quickly went on TT on X. Hundreds of viewers pointed out her pedantic attitude, and considered that Geneviève de Fontenay would not have liked her to pay tribute to him : “Of all the Miss France, there is only Sylvie Tellier that I never liked (…) The homage to Geneviève was beautiful but when I saw Tellier I was like that! Then I said: Hypocrite” one of them was scandalized. The gifs mimicking Sylvie Tellier’s attitude were pouring in by the dozens, and so were the criticisms: “She’s the only one who doesn’t shake hands. We’ve all seen it.”, “She’s the only Miss who didn’t make the effort to follow the dress code, to wear a white shirt! Even Cindy Fabre went to change!”, “I thought it was Beyoncé”… For the moment, Sylvie Tellier has not reacted to the criticisms damning her.