Journalist Bruce Toussaint is accused of having participated in a clandestine lunch in Deauville – BFM TV
- In a publication relayed many times on Facebook and Twitter, a user accuses journalist Bruce Toussaint of having participated in an underground lunch in Deauville
- L’Etage, restaurant of the Novotel hotel in Deauville, and the Accor Hotels group indicate to 20 minutes that the presenter of BFMTV was participating in a seminar, and that the eight participants in this professional event were served in a dedicated room, “in compliance with the applicable health measures”.
- According to the Ministry of Labor, the rules applied to company catering are in force when organizing meals on the sidelines of forecast seminars.
Did journalist Bruce Toussaint, presenter on BFMTV, participate in an illegal lunch in a hotel in Deauville in the midst of the Covid-19 epidemic? While the case of illegal dinners agitates the trays of continuous news channels, this is what several particularly viral publications on Twitter and Facebook claim. They show the photo of a menu of the restaurant L’Etage, in Deauville (Calvads) on which appears the date of March 13, 2021 and the name of the journalist.
The journalist #BFMTV, Bruce Toussaint would also have dined in a #restaurantclandestin on March 13, 2021 in Deauville in Normandy from an image of an invitation card.#WantNames #WantNames pic.twitter.com/gSNndXuNMI
– Anonymous Citizen (images) (@AnonymecitoyenS) April 5, 2021
The Etage sits on the fifth level of the Novotel de Deauville hotel and offers a panoramic view of the English Channel. The journalist is a regular at the famous seaside resort, and at the bar of the Normandy hotel, where he “sponsors” a cocktail.
This is not the first time that BFMTV journalists have been accused of participating in clandestine meals. Early March, The chained Duck revealed that consultants and journalists from the news channel had been surprised at the restaurant “Aux 3 Présidents” in Paris, during a police raid –
information refuted by the general manager of the channel, Marc-Olivier Fogiel.
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Contacted by 20 minutes, an executive from the Novotel in Deauville indicates, on condition of anonymity, that “Bruce Toussaint was in seminar on March 13, 2021” at L’Etage, and confirms the authenticity of the invitation card. “Business seminars are authorized by the government, catering was therefore provided by the hotel, in a room fitted out for the occasion,” he explains. The manager, who specifies that the restaurant room remains closed to customers, deplores a desire to harm the Etage restaurant, “which plays the game of sanitary restrictions”.
The communications department of the Accor group, joined by 20 minutes, confirms the holding of a seminar which “brought together 8 people on March 13” at the Novotel in Deauville, without specifying by which company this meeting was organized. “Meals were delivered to participants in a private room, in strict compliance with applicable health measures”.
On the side of the Ministry of Labor, the press service specifies that the holding of face-to-face company seminars should only be done when teleworking is impossible. Regarding meals, the same rules as for company restaurants must then be applied. A person must therefore have lunch alone at his table, wear the mask when traveling, have hydroalcoholic gel available and stay as far as possible from other guests.