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text by
webmaster Linda
Whenever I sit down to have the exceptional
pleasure to write of a new meeting with one of the former stars of
Catherine, one love is enough, or in this case of a personality who played in three
(four with La Comtesse de Charny) of Marion Sarraut's directed
TV-series, I ask myself if I am dreaming!
Luckily for us that
Leonardo da Vinci
studied the
functionality of the camera obscura at the time of the Renaissance!
Thanks to him (and French advocate Joseph Nicéphore Niépce ) we have
the delightful pleasure to look at beautiful memories as we have
with the photo shown above! A photo which is witness of the precious
moments we spent in the company of Isabelle Guiard on 19 May 2012.
Isabelle best known in our minds as the heavenly Jeanne d'Arc - the
queenly Marie-Antoinette and the gorgeous, but devilish Hieronyma
Pazzi.
But let me explain how it came to this
unforgettable and very unique meeting with the lovely and adorable
Isabelle Guiard our beloved Jeanne d'Arc! With Isabelle unites me a
special incident, one which could have made this meeting forever out
of the question - if --yes--if Isabelle Guiard were not this
marvelous and adorable woman she is in person. I have hinted a
lot of times that Isabelle and I shared a little secret between us,
way back in time when this website was only a few months old!
A secret I have not even shared with my dear
Frédérique, because it is actually embarrassing for the webmaster
of the Catherine de Montsalvy fansite
☺because
my dear friends, in my joy when I had been given Isabelle’s email
address by a dear visitors of my site, I had sent her the wrong
letter! A letter asking her if she would be so gentle to talk a bit
about her role of « Catherine de Montsalvy » It was not that it was
unknown to me, that she had played Jeanne d'Arc in Catherine...ah
no...I had just mixed the letters up! Isabelle answered me right
away (that already was for me the proof that she must be an
extraordinarily person) that she was happy to hear from me, but
sorry that she was not the one I had been looking for...! To make it
worse, I answered her in French, translated by the computer -
something which surely amused Isabelle, because she realized now
that I was more comfortable with English! When she replied to me
with her next email, it was in English, saying she was not in the
least insulted by this mistake! She was so kind to write afterwards
in my guest book, just after
Marion Sarraut! Since then we have
shared from time to time emails with each other - always with this
kind of laughter since the beginning when I made that “terrible"
mistake.
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While I made plans to travel to France to meet
some of my dear friends, the thought crossed my mind, why not have
the courage to ask Isabelle Guiard, if she would like to meet
Frédérique, (the webmistress of the official Juliette Benzoni
Biography) and me for a meeting at a lovely restaurant in Paris! To
our joy Isabelle agreed and said she would be delighted to meet us!
Frédérique who has been born in
Reims, has always
had - like
Juliette Benzoni, a very special feeling for
Jeanne d’Arc and as a great fan
of Le Gerfaut, remembered her also very well as the divine
Queen
Marie-Antoinette.
In the afternoon on May 19, after an agreeable trip with the TGV I
arrived at Gare de Lyon where my friend was waiting for me, smiling
all over her face and ready to go on our next adventure, as we call
it in secret. We decided to take the Métro and that was actually a
very good idea, since Paris was full of tourist on that Saturday
afternoon! In fact there were so many people and also the rain, that
we were afraid to miss Isabelle! But no fear, as we passed the
Louvre and arrived at our meeting point, Frédérique already
recognized our dear Isabelle. We took courage and made ourselves
known and were greeted cheerfully by beautiful Isabelle Guiard. We
walked all three of us ahead to go to a chic restaurant, where we
found a cozy corner for us three girls.
What can we tell you of this marvelous
Rendez-vous with one of the most popular characters in Catherine,
Le Gerfaut and
La Florentine? That we spent over three
hours in such charming company? That the time went by without us
noticing it? We talked and we laughed and dear Isabelle shared
stupendous anecdotes with us. While we listened to her we had again
the affirmation that truly, there must have been a great
understanding between the former stars and their
director Marion Sarraut, while they were shooting the series! We learned that she
adored the clothes she was able to wear in La Florentine and that
the character in Fiora Hieronyma Pazzi really was in
her own opinion terrible. When they dressed her
up as Queen Marie-Antoinette, it was at the first moment not so
comfortable to wear the crinoline – yet after a while she got so used
to it and she began actually to feel herself in these clothes and
hairstyles, as if she were Queen Marie-Antoinette!
I like to say that I have adored Isabelle
Guiard in all her roles – but as the ardent “Catherine” fan that
I am, it is logical I suppose that I most adored her as Jeanne
d’Arc! The way our Juliette Benzoni described Jeanne in «
Catherine, il suffit d’un amour II », when she entered on
8 May 1429 Orleans, to liberate the town from the English, was
something I never forgot. This is also superbly filmed in the
TV-series. I always see that scene in my mind, Jeanne, surrounded by
her faithful captains, Arnaud de Montsalvy, La Hire,
Jean de Xaintrailles, Gilles de Rais, Count Jean de Dunois…
Before I left for Paris, I had printed some
photos out for Isabelle, which showed her in her role as the
beautiful young girl known to us as Jeanne d’Arc. While
looking at those photos from the shooting of Catherine,
Isabelle remembered that day very well! It had been extremely cold
and the actors, while waiting for the scenes to be shot, got colder
and colder! Isabelle told us in a humorous way, barley opening her
lips that they were so frozen that they could hardly speak their
text! I have re-watched now those specific scenes – and if I am not
imagining it – we see veils of fog appear on the screen, while the
stars seem at their ease..!
She was very touched by the idea of our
websites and for once we were “interviewed” when Isabelle
wanted to know what made us create our websites. There was a
beautiful understanding growing between us as the hours went by. We
felt as if we had known each other for a very long time.
She told us that
she loves to sing and writes her own chansons. She has directed some
musicals and been lately on TV.We
asked if we might see her soon in a new play or on television.
That was also the moment I asked her if she would
do me the honor to answer my so-called
Mistral’s 12 question.
She smiled and said of course she would do that. Then with pleasure
she signed our photos we had brought with us. We received a
dedication for her faithful fans and one for us personally. We were
so absorbed in our animated discussion and sharing news between us,
that we had almost forgotten to ask Isabelle if she would pose for a
photo with us! To our immense joy she agreed on the spot to have her
picture taken together with us.
When the time came to say our good-bye, Isabelle gave us her
beautiful smile and made an extraordinarily statement, which we shall
forever cherish in our memories:
«Thank you
Linda and Frédérique,
you belong now also to us and the enchanting souvenirs of the time
of shooting the series »...!
We were very touched by this sentence and we like to thank again the
adorable Isabelle for spending the afternoon
on a rainy day in Spring
in Paris with
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Thank you once more very much dearest Isabelle, for
your gentleness and your friendship . You said
that you played only small roles in those TV-séries! I must
disagree, with your
stupendous performance we shall never forget your part in them. You
were definitely outstanding, be it as the Maid Jeanne d'Arc,
Queen Marie-Antoinette or an Italian Florentine Madonna |
