Charles Dumont, "No, I regret nothing."
What is the link between the Lot and Edith Piaf? This link is the Cadurcian Charles Dumont, a genius composer born in March 1929. Passionate about music, he was deeply influenced by jazz and Louis Armstrong. In the post-war years, he created his first jazz orchestra but after a tonsil removal that went wrong, he could never play the trumpet again; he had to give up jazz. He learns to play the organ in a church and discovers his path: he will be a songwriter. After years of wandering, it was a meeting with Piaf in 1960 that made his career take off. He offered her the song "Non je ne regrette rien", which was to be followed by some forty songs, including "Mon Dieu" and "Les Amants", which he performed on stage with Piaf.
Other big names will sing Dumont's songs: Bourvil (Notre amour est en grève), Luis Mariano (El Guerillero), Annie Cordy (Pantaléon), Dalida (Gitane), Michel Legrand (Lorsque Sophie Dansait), Juliette Gréco (La Propriétaire), Jacques Brel (Je m'en remets à toi), Mireille Mathieu (Les Gens qui s'aiment, Mon Dieu), Barbra Streisand (Le Mur) ..
Nino Ferrer / Léo Ferré
One lived near Gourdon for five years in the 1960s, the other moved to the Quercy Blanc in 1976. Léo Ferré fell in love with the Bouriane region and bought a castle at Perdrigal (Pech Rigal) in the commune of Saint-Clair near Gourdon. He settled there for 5 years with his wife Madeleine and Pépé the chimpanzee. It is in his bastion in the Lot that he put to music the poets Verlaine, Rimbaud and Baudelaire. The castle of Saint-Clair was then in ruins. He fitted out a wing that had been partly rehabilitated, and he founded a publishing company and a printing house there, where he had published, with Madeleine, "Les Mémoires d'un magnétophone". He left the Lot after the "criminal" death of Pépé, on April 7, 1968, the drama of his life.
The following decade saw the arrival of Nino Ferrer and his wife Kinou. In 1976 they discovered the Quercy Blanc and bought their house, a 15th century building perched on a hill near Montcuq.
In love with nature and the landscapes of the Quercy region, always in the company of his dogs and horses that he raises on the property, the artist passionately restores his house, builds dry stone walls, and develops the garden to create his universe. Little by little, he became friends with many people in the region. Lulled by the landscapes of the Quercy, Nino devoted himself to painting and drawing.
In 1972, Georges Brassens made a reference to the town of Montcuq in the Lot in his song "Ballade des gens qui sont nés quelque part" (Ballad of the people who were born somewhere) on the album Fernande.
"(...) Whether they come from Paris or Rome or Sète
Or from the Devil's Own Backyard or Zanzibar
Or even from Montcuq they flatter themselves
The happy idiots who were born somewhere (...) "
In 1981 the song "Rock Amadour" written, composed and interpreted by Gérard Blanchard was released. It was released as a single and topped the charts in early 1982, selling 1.7 million copies. The title is a pun on the town of Rocamadour.
Seventies humor
The popular art scene was marked in the 70s by great names of the French humoristic landscape. At least two of them have allowed the Lot to obtain a good reputation thanks to anthology sketches: Le Schmilblick by Coluche and Le Petit Rapporteur à Montcuq by Daniel Prévost, both broadcasted in 1976.
It is while passing by Cajarc during his vacations in the neighboring Aveyron that Coluche finds the inspiration for Le Schmilblick and his famous Mr. Moulinot, a fishing tackle merchant in Cajarc, who in the sketch takes advantage of the situation to advertise: "a quality fishing tackle can be bought at Moulinot's". Coluche also takes the features of "Papy Mougeot", an old pensioner living in Cajarc, and who can't pronounce the word schmilblick. This sketch contributes to the fame of the city, which owes it to him to have been quoted many times in the media since that time.
"For the first time, I am happy to show Montcuq on television And here is how Daniel Prévost, in his famous humoristic program "le Petit Rapporteur" registered the city of Montcuq in the history of the small screen.
The Lot makes its cinema
Like a fruitful soil, the Lot has been chosen for decades as a setting for the cinema. Louis Malle - who made the village of Lugagnac his home - shot his Lacombe Lucien (1974) in Figeac and Arcambal. He also shot his misunderstood fantasy film Black Moon in 1975. The setting for Black Moon is his own house in the Lot and some paths in the Causses of Limogne-en-Quercy. Paths lined with low dry-stone walls and surrounded by the nature of the Causses: oaks, plum trees, rocky outcrops on bare ground.
Other films were set in the Lot department. In Un Amour de sorcière with Vanessa Paradis in the main role (1997) we see a perfect shot of the Valentré bridge. Luc Besson shot part of his film Joan of Arc (1999) in Cahors. Effroyables jardins (2003) in Martel. Saint Jacques... La Mecque (2004) by Coline Serreau was shot in Bouziès. At the end of 2008, the Larrieu brothers shot their film Les Derniers jours du monde in Cabrerets. The extras from the Quercy region bring freshness and authenticity. This apocalyptic film transformed the hotel into an ephemeral battlefield.
More recently, in 2010, Guillaume Nicloux used the castle of Mercuès as a setting for Holiday with Jean-Pierre Darroussin and Josiane Balasko. Michaël Youn shot several scenes for Vive la France with José Garcia in July 2012 in Saint-Cirq-Lapopie. Sauliac, directed by Edouard Giraudo and starring Jean-Claude Dreyfus, was shot in May 2013 in various locations in the department, including around the castle of Vaillac, in the cloister of Cahors as well as in Espédaillac, Saint-Martin-de-Vers and Labastide-Murat and Goudou. In 2013, Murder in Rocamadour, featuring the famous village, the Dordogne Valley, Padirac, Autoire and the court of Cahors, around a mysterious crime; starring Clémentine Célarié. In the summer of 2014, the filming of an episode of the series Le Sang dans la vigne with Pierre Arditi took place at Château Lagrezette, at the Gambetta college in Cahors (as well as various shots in the department).
