Episode 109: The Voice of France (La voix de la France) - Revisited

To celebrate France’s love of culture, we’re revisiting some of our favorite episodes featuring francophone artists and performers. This episode, the story of Simone, who unknowingly became the most “listened-to voice in France.” Stick around until the end for an update on what Simone has been up to since the first episode aired!

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Transcript

Ngofeen: Bonjour, dear listeners! France is home to some of the greatest museums, theaters and opera houses in the world. And there’s lots of public support for the arts, because they are such a vital part of French culture. So, for this special season of the Duolingo French Podcast, we’re going to revisit some of our favorite episodes featuring singers, dancers and actors – even a French clown! They’ve all taken the stage to pursue, and share, their creative passions.

Today, we’ll hear an episode from February 2021, featuring Simone Hérault. At an early age, Simone discovered that her voice, with its warm and mellow tone, had the power to soothe others. But she never dreamed that her voice would accompany millions of people traveling by train across France. Keep listening to find out how it all happened and stay tuned until the end for an update from Simone herself! Now onto the episode.

Martina: Hi everybody, I am Martina Castro, the executive producer for the Duolingo podcasts. And for this episode, I’ll be filling in for our host Ngofeen Mputubwele.

Growing up near Paris, in the early nineteen-sixties, 13-year old Simone Hérault was a self-conscious girl filled with teenage angst. She went to an all-girls school and she wasn’t a very good student. She thought she had little to contribute.

Simone: Je n’étais pas très bonne élève et je n’étais pas très sûre de moi. J’aimais la littérature et les auteurs français comme Molière, ou Maupassant. Mais en classe, je restais souvent silencieuse. J’avais peur de faire des erreurs.

Martina: One day in class, Simone had to recite a poem she had learned by heart, in front of all of her classmates and her very strict, very demanding French teacher. She was nervous.

Simone: J’avais un peu peur, mais j’ai commencé à réciter le poème devant ma classe de français. Pendant que je récitais, j'ai senti quelque chose changer dans la salle de classe. Les autres élèves et la professeure me regardaient et m’écoutaient en silence.

Martina: As she spoke, Simone felt a hush settle over the room. By the time she finished, she could hear a pin drop. Finally, the teacher spoke up.

Simone: Ma professeure a dit : « C’était merveilleux ! ». Je n’oublierai jamais ces mots. Je n’avais pas beaucoup de confiance en moi, alors le compliment de la prof était important pour moi.

Martina: Simone told her parents she wanted to be a theater actor, une comédienne. They responded with the same advice every French parent gives their child: “First, pass your bac.” — the big exam that’s required to graduate French high school…

Simone: Mes parents m’ont répondu : « Passe ton bac d’abord. » Je voulais faire plaisir à mes parents, alors j’ai passé mon bac et j’ai abandonné l’idée de devenir comédienne.

Martina: Simone doubted the gift of her voice, and ignored the power it had to move people. What she did not realize was that life — and her voice — would eventually take her places she had never dreamed of…and that she’d grow up to become one of the most beloved voices in all of France.

Simone: En fait, je n’avais pas assez confiance en moi. Je ne savais pas que j’étais capable d’offrir quelque chose au monde.

Martina: Bienvenue and welcome to the Duolingo French Podcast. I’m Martina Castro. Every episode, we bring you fascinating true stories to help you improve your French listening and gain new perspectives on the world.

The storyteller will be using intermediate French, and I’ll be chiming in for context in English. If you miss something, you can always skip back and listen again. We also offer full transcripts at podcast.duolingo.com.

When Simone finished high school, she didn’t pursue her dream of acting. Instead she took a look at the world…and she felt small. It was the spring of 1968, and France, like much of the world, was going through massive, student-led uprisings that came to be known as mai 68, May 68.

Male voice: Loin de tous ces prétextes, le motif, c’est d’avoir défendu des idées…

Martina: Simone watched these bold university students from afar.

Male voice: Nous sommes à la tête d’un puissant mouvement…

Simone: Les étudiants de mai 68 m’impressionnaient beaucoup. Ils parlaient avec passion et ils avaient beaucoup d'idées. Je trouvais ces étudiants très intelligents. Je pensais que je ne serais jamais aussi intelligente qu’eux.

Martina: Simone was intimidated by these students. She saw them as smarter, and more daring than she’d ever be. She convinced herself that she wasn’t cut out for college, so instead, she enrolled in secretary school, a common path for women of her generation. In class, she joined rows of girls who were typing on typewriters, taper à la machine à écrire.

Simone: L’école de secrétariat était dans le centre de Paris, près de la gare Saint-Lazare. On apprenait à taper à la machine à écrire et à améliorer notre anglais. Il y avait aussi d’autres matières au programme.

Martina: Simone was surprised to do well in secretary school. So well, she earned a coveted internship, un stage.

Simone: Petit à petit, j’avais de plus en plus confiance en moi. Et pour une fois, j’étais assez bonne élève. Alors, le directeur de l’école m’a donné le meilleur stage à la fin du programme : un stage à la Maison de la Radio, dans le 16e arrondissement de Paris.

Martina: For her internship, Simone would be a secretary in training at the brand new public radio headquarters in Paris, La Maison de la Radio. She was thrilled.

Simone: Même si le stage n’était pas payé, j’étais très heureuse ! Mon premier jour, je suis arrivée devant ce grand immeuble rond, très moderne, avec de longs couloirs en forme de cercle. C’était très impressionnant.

Martina: Simone was assigned to be an intern secretary at the youth radio department, le service jeunes. She was only 19, but barely anyone in the department was over 30! Still, around her college-educated colleagues, Simone suddenly felt self-conscious again.

Simone: Au service jeunes, tous mes collègues journalistes étaient allés à l’université. Moi, j’étais secrétaire… Je pensais que j’allais seulement taper leurs articles.

Martina: Simone expected to be assigned menial tasks. But the department was so small and scrappy that reporters and editors constantly needed extra help: someone to call up a source to verify info, or do an extra bit of research. Even some writing. And Simone was more than happy to oblige.

Simone: Très vite, en plus de mon travail de secrétaire, j’ai eu d’autres responsabilités. Mes chefs étaient satisfaits de moi. Alors, à la fin de mon stage, on m’a proposé de continuer à travailler pour le service jeunes. Je n’étais pas beaucoup payée, mais j’étais tellement contente !

Martina: Soon, Simone was assigned to do a live report, un direct. The station needed her to cover a youth rally celebrating Franco-German friendship. She’d go to the rally, interview a few participants, write a short segment and call it in live from a phone booth, une cabine téléphonique.

Simone: Mon cœur battait très vite. J’étais terrifiée. Pendant les interviews, j’avais dit à tout le monde que c’était mon premier direct. Quand le moment est arrivé, je suis entrée dans la cabine téléphonique et j’ai appelé la station de radio.

Martina: As Simone waited for the signal that she was on the air, the young people she had interviewed began to cluster around the phone booth, cheering her on. She held her breath.

Simone: Dans la main droite, je tenais le petit papier avec le texte que j’avais écrit. Et dans la main gauche, je tenais le téléphone. Quand le chef d’édition m’a donné le signal, j’ai lu mon papier en direct à la radio. Et quand je suis sortie de la cabine téléphonique, tout le monde m’a applaudie ! Je n’oublierai jamais ce moment.

Martina: Simone didn’t get to hear her voice on the air, so she had no idea how she sounded. But people who did hear her told her she sounded great! They said she had a natural radio voice. Soon, two producers she had worked with approached her. How would she like to be une animatrice radio, a radio host?

Simone: Deux producteurs m’ont dit : « On va bientôt organiser une audition pour trouver de nouvelles animatrices sur la station de radio FIP. Si tu veux, tu peux passer l’audition ! ».

Martina: FIP, was France’s first music-focused radio station. It catered mostly to Parisians driving in traffic, so the hosts had to have smooth, calming voices. Simone figured it was a long shot, but she decided to give the audition a try.

Simone: Dans la pièce, il y avait 30 jeunes femmes. Les producteurs nous ont dit : « Écrivez un petit texte, et lisez-le avec le sourire dans la voix. » Ils cherchaient des animatrices avec des voix douces et rassurantes.

Martina: Simone wrote a ten-line review of a play she had seen in Paris, and she read the lines the way the producers directed. She tried to smile and make her voice as warm and smooth as possible. But still, she was nervous: There were so many other applicants…

Simone: Après l’audition, je suis retournée chez mes parents. Je n’étais pas du tout sûre d’être choisie. Je n’avais toujours pas complètement confiance en moi. Une semaine est passée, puis deux… Je n’y pensais presque plus. Puis un jour, quelqu'un a sonné à la porte.

Martina: Simone answered the door. It was a telegram.

Simone: J’étais impatiente de le lire. Sur le télégramme, il y avait seulement deux mots : « Candidature acceptée. »

Martina: Candidature acceptée. Application accepted. Simone had gotten the job, she was going to be a radio host!

Simone: J’ai crié de joie ! J’ai sauté partout dans le salon de mes parents. Je devais avoir l’air folle… Mais j’étais tellement contente ! C’était un vrai travail, avec un vrai salaire. Je me sentais vraiment fière.

Martina: Simone was walking on air. At 22, she had her first real job. Her life was changing in other ways too: She was about to get married, and she planned to start a family. She knew she wouldn’t be a comédienne, performing on stage, but she felt happy behind a microphone, un micro. She felt she had life figured out.

Simone: C’était le début d’une nouvelle vie. J’allais avoir une famille, et j’adorais mon travail… Moi, dès que j’étais devant un micro, j’étais heureuse.

Martina: And yet only four years later, Simone was a divorced single mom… Her salary at FIP was barely enough to sustain herself and her son.

Simone: Pour la première fois, j’ai réalisé que c'était très important d’être autonome. J’avais beaucoup de responsabilités, et je ne savais pas comment tout faire en même temps.

Martina: Simone wasn’t a well-known radio host. The work at FIP was pretty anonymous. No one said the name of the hosts on the air. And her shows were live, so she never even heard her own voice on the radio. She didn't mind. She loved her job, but as a single mom, she needed extra income. So she looked for additional work.

Simone: Je voulais continuer à travailler à la radio, mais j’avais besoin de gagner plus d’argent. Alors j’ai commencé à faire des voix pour des films, des documentaires et des publicités.

Martina: Right around that time, a phone dispatcher made a mistake that would change Simone’s life. Jacques Pagniez, a French civil servant working for la SNCF, France’s state-run railway company, picked up the phone one day and asked to be connected to one of France’s national radio stations. Instead, the dispatcher connected him to FIP.

Simone: C’était de la chance, ou le destin. La SNCF organisait une audition pour recruter deux nouvelles personnes pour faire les annonces dans les gares. Ils ont transmis le message aux animatrices de FIP.

Martina: Soon, every radio host at FIP knew that la SNCF was looking for two new voices: the people who record announcements for all of France’s train stations. Things like: “Stand clear of the closing doors.” and “Please step away from the platform edge.”

Simone: Tout de suite, j’ai été très intéressée. Avec ce travail, je pouvais gagner un peu plus d’argent. Alors j’ai décidé de passer l’audition.

Martina: That’s how, in 1981, 31-year-old Simone showed up at SNCF headquarters in an industrial zone just outside Paris. It was an unusual place for a recording session, but she made it through the audition…and…she got the gig! Soon, she started the recordings, les enregistrements.

Simone: Deux fois par an, on faisait les enregistrements. Il y avait trois annonces par train, l’arrivée, l’entrée en gare, et le départ, pour chaque gare de France. C’était beaucoup d’enregistrements ! En France, il y a environ 3 000 gares… Et puis, il y avait aussi des parties de phrases et les annonces universelles pour toutes les gares. Par exemple : « Madame, Monsieur, prenez garde à la fermeture des portes. »

Martina: Twice a year, for many, many years, Simone locked herself in the SNCF’s recording booth. She’d stay in there for hours, recording different train numbers and cities of departures and arrivals… It was a strange job. The long recording sessions were grueling and repetitive. Yet somehow, she enjoyed them.

Simone: Les phrases étaient banales, mais j’y mettais tout mon cœur. Pendant que je parlais, je souriais toujours. Sourire, c’était important pour moi, parce qu’un sourire, on peut l’entendre dans la voix !

Martina: As Simone recorded the announcements, she found herself imagining the travelers who would be listening to them. She imagined the hurried businessmen, the cheerful vacation-goers, and the groups of kids headed to camp.

Simone: Je m'adressais à tous les voyageurs. Je les imaginais dans ma tête, et je leur parlais. Avec ma voix, j’essayais de prendre les voyageurs par la main, de les accompagner et de les guider.

Martina: When she took the train, Simone would hear her voice on the speakers, it felt funny to her. Sometimes, she’d smile a bit self-consciously, and occasionally she’d even mouth the words under her breath. The passengers around her were oblivious.

Simone: Autour de moi, les passagers ne faisaient pas attention. Ils n’écoutaient pas vraiment les annonces. Mais un jour, à la gare de Lyon, à Paris, j’ai vu un homme prêt à allumer une cigarette.

Martina: France had recently enacted a law banning smoking in public places, which included inside a train station. As Simone observed the man nearby starting to light up a cigarette, she considered saying something… Then her own voice came out of the loudspeakers.

Simone: Juste à cet instant, ma voix est sortie des hauts-parleurs : « Madame, Monsieur, nous vous rappelons qu’il est interdit de fumer dans l’enceinte de la gare. » Alors, le monsieur a très vite retiré la cigarette de sa bouche ! Il avait l’air embarrassé, il était trop mignon… Ça m’a fait rire !

Martina: In that moment, Simone realized that passengers did in fact pay attention to her announcements… Soon after, Simone was featured in an issue of the SNCF’s magazine, and something unexpected began to happen. People started recognizing her…and thanking her.

Simone: Les gens me disaient : « C’est vraiment sympa d’entendre votre voix dans la gare. Elle est douce et sincère. » À chaque fois qu’on me disait ça, j’étais très heureuse.

Martina: Simone had a great working relationship with Jacques Pagniez, the man whose accidental phone call to FIP had landed her the gig at the SNCF. Over the years, his department brought Simone to pay visits to teams of conductors and rail workers, les cheminots, all around France.

Simone: J’arrivais dans les gares de France comme une invitée spéciale, et je rencontrais les cheminots. Aujourd’hui, les contrôleurs me reconnaissent souvent dans le train, et ils me disent bonjour. J’ai une chance extraordinaire. Les gens sont contents de me voir parce qu’ils associent ma voix à quelque chose de positif.

Martina: On some occasions, les chefs de gare, the station masters, would ask Simone to read an announcement in their region’s local dialect. Like in the city of Lille, where she once read an announcement in the northern French dialect known as ch’ti. There was something about Simone’s voice that reassured people, made them feel welcome and safe on their travels. Friends and railroad workers even asked her to make special private announcements for retirement parties and weddings… Her voice had the power to bring joy.

Simone: J’ai un travail vraiment unique. J’ai pu voyager dans toute la France et rencontrer plein de gens. C’est toujours un vrai plaisir. Avant, je n’étais pas toujours sûre de moi. Mais parce que les gens m’ont fait confiance, maintenant, moi aussi j’ai confiance en moi.

Martina: As the years went by, and turned into decades, Simone’s voice remained a touchstone for train travelers throughout France. She came to realize that maybe she, and her voice, did in fact belong in the world of acting that she used to dream about as a girl.

Simone: Les gens me disaient très souvent que j’avais une belle voix, et qu’ils aimaient l’entendre. Alors, cela m’a enfin donné l’assurance que je n’avais pas quand j’étais plus jeune.

Martina: Which is why, at age 50, Simone decided to leave her longtime job at FIP to pursue a lifelong dream: performing on stage. She founded her own theater company, called “Lire autrement”, “Reading a different way.”

Simone: Avec l’aide de mon ami Jacques Pagniez, j’ai créé ma compagnie de théâtre. Elle s’appelle « Lire autrement ». En fait, je réalise le rêve de la petite Simone de 13 ans, quand elle récitait des poèmes devant sa classe.

Martina: If Simone could meet her younger self today, she knows exactly what she’d say.

Simone: Si je pouvais rencontrer la jeune Simone aujourd’hui, je lui dirais d’avoir plus confiance en elle. Elle pensait qu’elle n’était pas capable de faire autant de choses, mais finalement, elle a vraiment réussi !

Ngofeen: If you happen to travel by train in France, be sure to pay attention to the announcements at the station — you’ll hear Simone!

Simone: Bonjour à tous, c’est Simone !

Ngofeen: And since she first shared her story with us in 2021, Simone has expanded her creative work. She shared some of her favorite recent projects with us in a message on What’s App, so you’ll notice she sounds a bit different from her original broadcast, or diffusion.

Simone: Depuis la diffusion de l’épisode, j’ai continué à enregistrer pour la SNCF, bien sûr.

J’ai aussi présenté une lecture de plusieurs textes d’un humoriste amoureux de la langue française, Raymond Devos.

Ngofeen: That presentation was for the nonprofit theater company Simone runs. It’s called Lire Autrement, and it brings classic French texts to life through dramatic readings. And Simone has also tried her hand at writing, or l’écriture!

Simone: J’ai participé à l’écriture du livre de mon ami Jacques Pagnez intitulé Ces rencontres qui nous inventent.

J’espère que vous allez tous bien ! Au revoir chers tous ! À bientôt.

Ngofeen: Thank you Simone! It’s so nice to hear from you and best of luck in all of your projects!

This story was produced and adapted by Adonde Media’s Lorena Galliot.

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The Duolingo French podcast is produced by Duolingo and Adonde Media. Our managing editor is David Alandete. Our Senior Editor is Laura Isensee. This season was produced by Lorena Galliot and included stories by Abigail Murta, Sarah Elzas, Adélie Pozman-Pontay, Camille Lindbom, Estelle Ndjandjo and Lorena Galliot. Natacha Ruck edited the original stories. Audio editors and sound designers were Martine Chaussard, David de Luca and Samia Bouzid. Our Mixing and Mastering Engineers were Luis Gil, David de Luca and Laurent Apffel. Román Frontini is our production manager and Nicolás Sosa is our production coordinator. Martina Castro is our Executive Producer and I’m your host, Ngofeen Mputubwele, à la prochaine !

Credits

This episode was produced by Duolingo and Adonde Media.

Adaptation Credits: