“I love the suburbs, it inspires me”: at 85, the poet from Bagneux still rhymes

There are things that do not change. Even in Bagneux (Hauts-de-Seine), where the ballet of cranes continues to change the landscape in recent years. Like this little white house with a green wooden glass roof, the gable of which points discreetly above the trees. It was there before the Mozart bar, located just opposite in the Pierre-Plate district, and will still be there after its demolition.

For those close to the neighborhood, it is “the house of the poet” in Bagneux. But there is no poet in reality. She is a poet. Françoise Leclerc, a little woman of almost 86, flirtatious and spontaneous, opened her doors to us at the dawn of the new year. A haven of peace in the midst of the tumult of construction sites, where time seems to have stood still.

It is from this small suburban pavilion, where she has lived since 1972, that the octogenarian never ceases to find inspiration. She has just published her seventh collection of poetry with the Harmattan editions. With “Agur Donostia” * (“Goodbye” in Basque), she takes us on the paths of exile that she knew as a child during the Second World War, from Bordeaux that she had to flee, to Africa. , where she lived from 6 to 13 years old and where she learned to speak Wolof.

Inspired by the cemetery of Bagneux or the park of Sceaux

“It’s a farewell book to youth, love and war. Especially the war, it destroyed my house in Bordeaux, the country, people I loved. Revolution, I’m fine, but not war, ”she proclaims energetically.

But before writing about her life and exile, Françoise Leclerc was greatly inspired by the suburbs. “There was the old Bagneux when I arrived, who was still very much alive. There was only this house and, behind, allotment gardens where we sold horse dung, ”she recalls. Then she chained the ideas: “There was violence, there were dwarves in the gardens, there are terrible cats: Jacky Black, a huge tomcat, a real gang leader! “

A poetic spirit which enabled her, in 2001, to be the winner of the RATP Des Rimes et des rames competition and to receive the prize from the State Ministry responsible for cultural affairs. “I love the suburbs, it inspires me more than Paris, it’s alive, it’s combative, there are things to do there,” she insists. The Parisian cemetery of Bagneux, that of Montrouge or the park of Sceaux: from these places some of his texts are born.

“The Pierre-Plate will disappear … The metro will arrive, speculation with …”

And then, sometimes, just by crossing the road or looking out the window, Françoise Leclerc draws her inspiration from her neighborhood, Pierre-Plate and its HLM bars. “Pierre-Plate, rue Mozart, rue Chopin, city of the Musicians, We would like to live there in these old buildings… Where the sentry keeps watch, rue du Prunier-Hardi, the roses in the gardens, the roses are exquisite, Pierre-Plate… The slab is left concrete ”, she wrote in a collective work“ La Poésie est dans la rue ”published in 2008 by Le Temps des cerises, for which she was a member of the reading committee.

“The Pierre-Plate will disappear … On the other hand, the metro will arrive, speculation with … There, I’m a little afraid, because we have peace here”, she laments. Because even if life has not always been easy in the district, Françoise Leclerc seems very attached to it. Culturally, it finds its account, at least before confinement.