The coronation of Muguette Fabris, Miss France 1963, had not really pleased the director of the high school where the young woman taught mathematics … While waiting for the election of Miss France 2021, next Saturday, December 19, retrace each day the crazy history of Miss France, thanks to the Match archives.
Fortunately, times have changed. But in 1963, we still wonder: can a math teacher be Miss France? “When you teach mathematics, you don’t spend your leisure time chasing beauty prizes, but doing integrals.” Muguette Fabris, 22, drew this remark from the director of the Lycée Marguerite de Valois in Angoulême, when she resumed her classes on January 4. She had just won the title of Miss France during the Christmas holidays.
“Never, in the annals of the University, had we seen a member of the teaching staff take an exam in a swimsuit”, laughs our magazine, in its number 718, dated January 12, 1963. Very proud, the town hall gave him a green plant to brighten up his little room, but at school, we joke less. The director fears “disturbances in class”. It will not be. On her return, Muguette found a box of chocolates on her desk, and “Long live our Miss France” written on the blackboard.
One would easily take her for a younger sister of Sophia Loren, emphasizes Match, but her fifth graders prefer to nickname her Cleopatra. However, the beauty queen remained simple, she who, on Sundays, cleans the windshields to help her parents in their gas station. The modeling career does not interest him. “You can’t be Miss for long. Even if ‘I had the Universe’, it would only last one more year… ”Muguette will climb to the final, all the same, of Miss Universe, before resuming, peacefully her career as a teacher.
Muguette Fabris is part of the Miss France 2021 jury.
1920-2020, the centenary of the Miss. The Miss France competition is celebrating its hundredth anniversary this year. On this occasion, retrace their crazy history thanks to the Match archives, by discovering the fate of a Miss every day on our site, until the election of the new beauty queen on Saturday 19 December …
Here is the report devoted to Muguette Fabris, Miss France 1963, as published in Paris Match in 1963 …
DiscoverRetro Match, news through the Match archives …
Paris Match n ° 719, January 19, 1963
“Muguette, Angoulême is proud of you”
By Robert Collin, report Gabriel Conesa and René Vital
Muguette Fabris, Miss France 1963, on the cover of Paris Match number 719, dated January 19, 1963. © Paris Match
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“Will you stay a while to watch Muguette with us?” »On the threshold of the Caltex station, in Naintré (south exit of Châtellerault), a small brunette woman with pleasant features discourages the drivers of the RN 10 who had stopped to fill up with diesel. Gently, she pushes them into the next room, where all the bungalow chairs are lined up. Her husband, a nice fellow with a shiny head, is busy filling cups. “It’s sparkling wine from my vineyard,” he told me. Then, approaching the television set which reels in the evening broadcast in the shadows, he continues: “It will soon be my daughter’s turn.” Are you coming, woman? “It must be said that the celebratory pump attendant is the father of Miss France 1963, Muguette Fabris, from her state as a math teacher at the Marguerite-de-Valois high school in Angoulême. And this evening, ten days after her election in Bordeaux, the prodigious child will be shown live on television, during the program “Monsieur Tout-le-Monde”. The phone. He’s Esso’s colleague. He said: “We too are all in front of the station. We don’t want to miss this. The game is on. Guy Lux, the presenter, asks the ritual questions. Candidates do their job as candidates. While waiting for Muguette, Father Fabris, in the front row, dreams out loud for me: – Sometimes that could help him find a role in the cinema. But here is Muguette, in close-up, on the small screen that has never seemed so big in the back of the service station. She is in a fancy swimsuit, her chest lined with a scarf embroidered in gold with the words “Miss France”. A neighbor, behind, exclaims: “It is she! ”
The father. – Yes, but she wears too much makeup, I already told her. The mother. – It’s the tiredness. They will ruin it for me by making it travel.
On the screen, Mr. Lux asks Muguette if she likes to teach mathematics. She says yes; if she is happy to be Miss France: yes; if she would like to make films: she wouldn’t say no; if she would like to find a husband: it is not yet the time. So, the presenter announces that he has organized a referendum in three cities of France. In Strasbourg, Marseille and Angoulême, passers-by were asked if they would accept their daughter to appear in the Miss France competition. Strasbourg answers yes by 59%, Marseille by 54%. – Now, said Lux, I’ll call Angoulême. Mrs. Fabris. – There, they know Muguette. They will answer 90% yes. Angoulême’s voice. – Here, the results upset all forecasts. We find only 16% of favorable responses. A truck driver (behind the Fabris). – It’s all rigged.
“Miss France in her math class” – Paris Match n ° 718, dated January 12, 1963. © Paris Match
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She makes her dresses herself
On the screen, Muguette shakes her long jet black hair, sketches a broad smile, the meaning of which we don’t quite understand, then her face disappears. We notice that she has changed her queen’s jersey for an elegant lamé dress.
“She was the one who made it,” said her mother. But it doesn’t have to be repeated, sir. It wouldn’t please the organizers too much. The father. – How long is she going to hang out like this? As long as she arrives in Angoulême in time to take her lesson tomorrow morning … There is nothing extraordinary about being an assistant professor of mathematics in a large provincial high school. There is nothing extraordinary to climb, when you know you are beautiful, the path strewn with carpet which leads to the throne of Miss France. I It is amazing to be both in the same person. This is the mystery of Muguette Fabris, 54 kg, twenty-two years old, chest measurement, 0.89, hip measurement, 0.90, 50 cm waist size, 1.69 m height, two tubs, a certificate in general mathematics. She was born by chance in Angoulême in 1940 while her father was mobilized in this city. Gunner girl. Before becoming a pump attendant, Mr. Fabris was an entrepreneur in Châtellerault. An industrial brother. At the college for young girls, Muguette redeems her weaknesses in French by her agility in calculations. We would like her to prepare a future for herself in her uncle’s factory. But she is only a logger. This is the bac. He has passed. “On Sunday, you will take my car,” said her father, “and you will take your sister wherever you want. We trust you, good girls. “
At the La Roche-Posay casino
The summer routes are all laid out. Seventeen kilometers from Châtellerault, there is a delightful casino. That of La Roche-Posay (waters impregnated with arsenic, skin diseases). One Sunday, besides the fashionable ball, there is a gala. We’re going to elect Miss Poitou. The friends push Muguette onto the candidates’ bench. She has large natural eyes. It is the prettiest. Mr. de Fontenay, the master of the organization, questions him. She’s smart for her age. Elected.
The following winter, Muguette entered the faculty of Poitiers. She shares a small student room with her sister Marlène. Coffees-cream at the Café de la Paix, attendance at lessons. The road to licensing will be long. Six certificates: general mathematics, electricity, probability, general mechanics, math. 1, math. 2. In June 1962, Muguette Fabris, red with pleasure, read her name in the short list of receipts at “Math. uncomfortable. “. She sends a request to the rectorate. With just one certificate, nowadays you can get an auxiliary position in a high school. For its part, the organization of the Misses has not forgotten Miss Poitou. He was offered the trip to Paris. At the Mutualité, she is proclaimed Miss Ile-de-France. Why this leap from province to province? It’s like the MPs. It is better to elect domicile and register. Muguette had an aunt in Paris. During the holidays, the response from the University arrived, favorable. Appointed in Angoulême. Does the University know that it is naming a Miss? Is the organization of Misses aware of presenting a member of the teaching staff each time it organizes a gala?
“On Sundays in a white coat, the miss teacher is a gas station attendant at her parents'” – Paris Match n ° 718, dated January 12, 1963. © Paris Match
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The beauty ? My Ingres violin
– I’ve always had the habit, Muguette Fabris told me, to separate the public from the private. This is why I was in no way embarrassed when the Bordeaux jury elected me Miss France on December 31. – Why did you ask for this post of adjunct professor? – To live better. All students need a job – why do you agree to live, in your spare time, this wandering and easy existence of Miss that is exhibited, on a podium, in front of the crowds? – To live better. All teachers need a violin from Ingres. – You call that a violin of Ingres? – It’s something like a sport. I never did any physical culture. But smiling on a stage, braving an audience, that does to me what the act of kicking a ball can do to a boy. It relaxes me. – And then ? – And then, it makes you travel. Like football, by the way. – What trips would you like to take? – I would like to know Italy, Spain, Portugal. – And England? – I will necessarily go, since the Miss Universe contest will take place in London – Do you have a lot of friends? – Few, but few enemies. Maybe I am too distant, I mean too careful. – And what do you think of men? – I like having them for comrades when they are intelligent and they know how to make decisions. I hate people who let themselves be tossed about by life. – Are you engaged? – No. First I have to settle down in life, that I have a situation. – Someday you will have to make decisions. Are you capable of it? – When I said no, I no longer vary, even if I want to say yes. And vice versa. – Where do you live ? – I live in a furnished room, which I pay 10,000 old francs a month. – Where do you take lunch ? – In the civil servants’ canteen, in the old infantry barracks. I take my bread, I pay 2 francs for my ticket, and in twenty minutes it’s over. – How much do you earn? – Here is my notice of mandate 640 francs per month. – It’s enough ? – No. My parents complete. – Of being Miss France, it pays? – Many worries, but no money in money. Some trips, I hope, if I can make them.
As a gift a green plant
For Muguette Fabris – Miss France, the hour of choice has not yet come. Angoulême almost fought for or against her, but Angoulême is wise. Angoulême understood that his teacher in a swimsuit is too. The whole town must have looked down on her, and the mayor officially receives her, offers her a green plant “to brighten up her room”. The president of the tourist office and the vice-president of the Parents’ Association are the same man. Me Maury, a round attorney. On behalf of the tourist office, Me Maury reserves the reception n ° 1, that of local celebrities. In the second title, he delays. But everything will be sorted out in the end, between beauty and education, with a great kiss of peace. – Only, one day, it will all the same to choose? “You can’t be Miss for long,” said Muguette. Even if “I had the Universe” it would only last a year longer. The professorship, on the contrary …
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