From our special correspondent in the Jura,
Will love be in the meadow for Noémie? To this question, the candidate leaves room for doubt. Having become a local personality since the publication of her portrait in Love is in the meadowFebruary 14, then the first episode of season 17 at the end of August, Noémie says that she has already read and heard this question fifty times since her appearance on the show presented by Karine Le Marchand.
It is with his communicative smile, his powerful voice and his outspokenness that “Nonoche” welcomes 20 minutes mid-September on his farm, near Dole, in the Jura. It is here that the blonde, who is gradually regaining her “real hair” after a “hair whim” that forced her to appear short haired in front of viewers, raises 55 Charolais cows.
The life of the young woman has not been turned upside down by the small notoriety acquired since she passed on M6, even if she concedes small changes in her daily life.
A life “at a hundred miles an hour”
Her life, she always lives it “a hundred miles an hour”. In the middle of calving, she has no time to breathe. “We had our second caesarean section of the year last night, that never usually happens,” she says between two blows of the pitchfork in the pen where her little “weavers” roam, the calves born this season.
Here, no day is the same as the previous one, but the period from August to November, when she has to take care of the newborns, is particularly intense. “Right now, I’m putting my sleep on hold because the days are long and when I get home, I jump in my car to go see friends,” she says. If daily life on the farm requires endurance, Noémie wants to preserve her busy social life.
It’s when she leaves that she notices looks that have become more insistent. “Saturday during a comice [une manifestation agricole ouverte au public] in Dole, I had barely walked through the door when someone shouted “C’est Nonoche de Love is in the meadow“and everyone was watching us,” says the one who, at 25, became the youngest candidate in the M6 program.
“Not at all my world”
While she has just completed the successive filming dedicated to the show with her “assessment” in Paris recorded from September 12 to 16, the Franc-Comtoise recognizes a certain pleasure in the intrusion of the show’s teams for a few days in his daily life during Gaël and Romain’s visit to his farm. “But it’s not my world at all,” she says in her red T-shirt and black tights combo allowing her to indulge in all the activities that life as a farmer imposes.
While she has never watched the show, it was her friends and friends who applied for the show in August 2021. “They had wanted to sign me up for at least two years but, on my side, I I was convinced never to be selected because I was not 30 years old. Age is indeed a requirement to pass the casting for the program. This barrier did not slow down the production of the show which was quick to call it. For 90 minutes, Noémie revealed herself on the phone. “Before hanging up, the person told me that she wanted me on the show because I was a” ray of sunshine “”, still has fun from the Jura.
A few weeks later, the young woman received a final call to confirm that she will be part of season 17 of the program. “I told him: ‘I don’t know if I should cry or laugh!’ The curiosity of seeing a film crew enter her daily life finally won her over, especially since she hoped to find love.
“My job as a farmer frightened many people,” she says. A 25-year-old girl running a farm is not easy. I have already experienced the situation where the guy has not been able to find his place among all the men around me…” Between the first contacts and the distribution, the adventure has already lasted a year and continues with its passages regular in the small screen.
No more shopping in pajamas
While an episode of the program must be broadcast the same evening, Noémie does not escape the burdens imposed by her work. Here, each cow has a name, assigned from birth. “This calf is Paprika because its mother’s name is Omelette, so it’s easy to remember, like a paprika omelette,” smiles Noémie. Passionate about her work, she checks that each calf is with its mother, supervises small jobs on the farm or brings hay to her animals at the wheel of her tractor.
“I can no longer go shopping in my pajamas on Sundays,” she laments. Because if she is not always stopped by the people who notice her, the looks have changed and she is also sometimes photographed without her knowledge. “It’s very frustrating because I can’t protect those around me. I accepted this media coverage but this is not the case for my relatives who sometimes go out with me since people see me in Love is in the meadow. »
When we recognize her, the exchanges generally revolve around the image she sends back on the show. It is often the curiosity of viewers who find her beyond the small screen that pushes them to come and engage in conversation. “Every time I go out, people come and ask who I chose, if I’m still in a relationship… Sorry, but no one will ever have the answer before the end of the show. »
“I take no pleasure in looking at myself”
Since the start of the broadcast of the episodes, Noémie has gotten into the habit of avoiding the comments section of social networks, especially during the broadcast of excerpts where she appears. It is by having the bad reflex to dive into it that she took this resolution over the broadcast. “The channel had warned us not to do it, but it’s human enough to go and see anyway, out of curiosity,” she says. Remarks on her physique, on her choices, and on the way she treats her suitors, the farmer is not spared. “I remain super happy with my adventure, what happens behind is uncontrollable, unfortunately. »
She does not want to miss any episodes. It is now a weekly meeting between her and her group of friends. Every Monday, she zaps on M6 to find out how her sentimental adventures have been portrayed in Love is in the meadow. “For speed dating, I didn’t like the editing at all. It seemed like I was only thinking about the size of my suitors and their desire to have children with me… What I take in my teeth, it’s crazy, especially since I’m not Beyoncé to criticize anyone, it does not correspond so much to my temperament, ”she complains while she still receives criticism on this sequence, yet broadcast several weeks ago. “We only see two minutes of speed dating but it lasted ten minutes per suitor. I asked many other questions but they were not kept so it seems that I am focused on this information, ”she defends herself.
She also says that she is not quite comfortable with the image she sends back in certain sequences. “Sometimes when I see myself, I really want to slap myself,” admits Noémie. Criticized on her physique, she says she has always been the target of ridicule. If, as she explains in her portrait, this has long been a source of discomfort for her, she now knows how to defend herself against it. “My friends recognize me through the screen, that’s the main thing, she consoles herself again. Before I said nothing, I had no character and I let myself be walked on so I prefer not to be unanimous but to be myself. »
A showcase for farmers
Noémie now focuses on the positive comments she receives, often by private message on social networks. Several times a day, she takes a break to share a bit of her daily life and respond to the benevolent messages she receives. “There, I just received a “Bravo for the image that you send back to TV” or even “I find you too funny, you represent girls with shapes well”, rejoices the farmer. It’s too much fun! Overnight, I also started getting compliments that no one had ever given me except my family. »
She is also delighted to take part in a program which makes accessible and conveys a positive image of the profession of farmer, “a profession of passion” despite the working conditions becoming more difficult every year. “At the administrative level, it has become a horror”, confides the one who was born from a farmer father and a hairdresser mother. She now collaborates with one of her brothers and her father for the management of her farm. “We realize that people have a very bad image of the agricultural world. Sometimes you drive around in a tractor and you get the middle finger for no reason…”
In the years to come, she would like to open her farm to children from the city to make them aware of the importance of agricultural work and raise their awareness of the issues that affect it. “Older people, we can no longer change their mentalities but I am convinced that we can still raise children’s awareness and I would like to do my part of the work. »
Still a long job. Noémie is aware that a contempt persists in France, in particular from certain viewers towards “peasants” but she assumes and even invites any city dweller to join her. “We are rednecks but I love that, that’s the simple life! »