“The most beautiful avenue in the world for the greatest dictation in the world”. The quote is not taken from one of the three dictations offered this Sunday on the Champs-Elysées but from Marc-Antoine Jamet, the president of the Champs-Élysées Committee, before the start of the event. Indeed, this Sunday, on the famous avenue, which became pedestrian for a few hours, thousands of tables and chairs were arranged to welcome the participants in a major dictation. On the program: three texts read by three famous “readers”, Augustin Trapenard, journalist and presenter of “La Grande Librairie”, who launched hostilities with the “dictation of our childhood”. There followed the novelist Katherine Pancol, with the “dictation of today”, and Pierre Rabadan, deputy for sports at the town hall of Paris, for the last text, the “sports dictation”.
Like a 20 minutes, we are not afraid of anything and especially not to test our spelling skills, we tried our luck with our colleague Augustin Trapenard, alongside some 1,700 people, a record approved by the Guinness Book. But between “fifes”, “lices”, “warping machines” or even “cruet cutters”, Alphonse Daudet almost got the better of our self-confidence! Story of a sunny afternoon sweating while searching for words.
“I bet on four, five faults maximum”
1:30 p.m., the participants begin to flock and settle quietly on the surrounding tables. “Joe Dassin and Marcel Proust, it’s France, not the same but always the one that celebrates the Champs-Elysées”. Our king of the punchline of the day, Marc-Antoine Jamet is never short when it comes to encouraging the massed crowd or praising an event that could give birth to a record. In the journalists’ corner, the atmosphere is rather relaxed. “I bet on four, five faults maximum”, launches a colleague. “If you’re wrong, it’s on TV,” joked another. At 20 Minutes, we have great confidence when it comes to seizing the 4-color BIC, offered to participants. Dictation has never been a concern and the scale of the challenge is elsewhere anyway. Will there be a world record today? “Your QR code please for approval”, claims a member of the organization.
Then suddenly, Augustin Trapenard is on the Champs stage, alongside another colleague Ruth Elkrief, well-known head of the news channels, who is presenting this afternoon of dictation. “Is everyone ready? he stalks the crowd. I will read the text three times, a first without stopping so that you soak it up, a second, slowly and with punctuation for you to write, and a last for proofreading. This is an extract from a short story by Alphonse Daudet, The Pope’s mule. There is silence, as in an examination room when the subjects are distributed.
The important thing is not the faultless but to participate
And off we go for about thirty minutes to recount a text from the 19th century. A “dictation from our childhood” for the target of the over 60s a priori because unless the profession of warping machine or cruet cutter still exists, it is quite certain that “fifes and tambourines” forever deserted the so famous bridge of Avignon! AT 20 minutesover the course of reading, it’s a cold shower despite the heat: we sorely miss the automatic corrector and writing with a 4-color BIC is definitely an exercise in its own right, that we have to admit, we had a little forget.
“Oh! happy times! the happy city! concludes a text far from the “contest of anecdotes feat the director of Gaul” organized by McFly and Carlito two years ago with the President of the Republic. But this Sunday, no com shot for one of the two friends present in the crowd of anonymous. “A dictation with 1,700 people, it could not be missed,” says Carlito, off camera, he who temporarily ceased his activities with his friend. How many faults in the end? For Carlito, 20 minutes decided to keep it a secret and for its own copy, preferred not to open a controversy over “tick-tock”. Alphonse Daudet being the author, he remains master of his text and the spelling he imposes on it. And too bad for the 1,700 people present, the record of participants was beaten, on the front of the faults on the other hand, nothing is less certain…