It is a secret place, a few steps behind the huge stage of the Miss France election, at Mach 36 in Déols, in the suburbs of Châteauroux (Indre). A particularly lively hive this Saturday evening, less than two hours from the antenna, at 9:05 p.m. on TF 1.
To enter it, you have to lift a heavy black velvet curtain. Behind, we discover a huge room of several hundred square meters, lulled by the hum of dryers. “Even the security person is a woman at the entrance because they can all be in their bras when someone arrives, specifies Cindy Fabre, the new director of the competition, dressed soberly in black and lightly made up with sequins.
“It can run everywhere, like in a fashion show”
Here they are 21 makeup artists and 21 hairdressers. “Generally, it’s one girl per hairdresser, but those with more than sixteen years’ experience can handle several candidates at the same time. One of the favourites, Miss Nord-Pas-de-Calais, puts a wick behind her ear, looking at herself in the mirror. Under his table, his bag is already ready like all his classmates.
If she is elected, she will go directly to Paris in a sedan at night with this cabin suitcase including the necessary things. “Besides, mine, it had been stolen from me, laughs Cindy Fabre, crowned in December 2004. I was so certain not to win more…” Now, for the first year, it has gone from the other side of the mirror, taking over from Sylvie Tellier.
“The lung of the competition is here, there is all the excitement, it is very very secret, continues the ex-Miss. There it’s calm, but all of a sudden it can run everywhere, like in a fashion show. There is a precise timing to respect for the 42 dressers. » A photographer from the SIPA agency, who has exclusive rights to the images of the competition, discreetly enters the cave. “Sorry Laurent, but it’s outside,” says a member of the production. He leaves without flinching, his finger on the seam of his pants.
“Here, it’s really their place of intimacy, their parenthesis between them after months of preparation to get there,” continues Cindy Fabre. In front of each mirror, there are photos of their presentation in costume, fuchsia pink. In the reflection, what they have become for the evening, with their huge brushings or, on the contrary, their hair pulled. The queens of the evening are almost ready.