Transcript for The Voice of France (La voix de la France) - Revisited

Hi, everybody. I'm Martina Castro, the executive producer for the Duolingo Podcasts. And for this episode, I'll be filling in for our host, GoFan Boutoulli. Growing up near Paris in the early 1960s, 13-year-old Simone Ero was a self-conscious girl filled with teenage angst. She went to an all-girl school, and she wasn't a very good student. She thought she had little to contribute.

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

The big exam that's required to graduate French high school.

Simone doubted the gift of her voice and ignored the power it had to move people. which he 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. Beyond the new 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 get 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 Mayce Wazontweet, May 68. Simone Watch, these bold university students from afar.

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 that pay a la machine a eclir.

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

For her internship, Simone would be a secretary in training. At the brand new public radio headquarters in Paris, the maison de la radio. She was thrilled.

Simone was assigned to be an intern secretary at the Youth Radio Department. 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 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.

Soon Simone was assigned to do a live report, a direct 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, Unicabin Telefonique.

She 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, an animatrice radio, a radio host?

FEEP 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 wrote a ten-line review of a place 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.

Simon answered the door. It was a telegram.

When did the teacher accepted? Application accepted. Simone had gotten the job. She was going to be a radio host.

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 comedian, performing on stage, but she felt happy behind a microphone. Amy Crow, she felt she had life figured out. And yet, only four years later, Simone was a divorced single mom. Her salary at feet was barely enough to sustain herself and her son.

Simone wasn't a well-known radio host. The work at FEEP 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.

Jacques Pagnès, a French civil servant working for La Essence de F. 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 Fép.

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.

Soon she started the recording, but it was just a moment.

Twice a year, for many, many years, Simone locked herself in the SNS 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.

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

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.

Soon after Simone was featured in an issue of the SNCF magazine, and something unexpected began to happen. People started recognizing her, and thinking her. Simone had a great working relationship with Shak Paniaz, the man who's accidental phone call to feed, had landed her the gig at the SNCF. Over the years, his department brought Simone to pay visits to teams of conductors and railworkers, Les Chaminos, all around France.

On some occasions, the chief of the station masters would ask Simon 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 Xi. 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.

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.

Which is why at age 50, Simone decided to leave her long-time job at Feep to pursue a lifelong dream, performing on stage. She founded her own theater company called Leer Otro Mont, reading a different way.

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