It is with great emotion that the French learned of the death, this January 10, 2021, at the age of 73, of Georges Pernoud, the father of the program “Thalassa”, the Magazine of the sea.
Every Friday evening on France 3, for 37 years, from 1980 to 2017, he invited himself into their homes with his tender bonhomie, his simplicity and his friendly team. He was part of the family. We liked him.
Georges Pernoud is the host who has had the longest life at the head of a television program.
1704 issues presented!
Journalist, host and television producer, he began his career at the ORTF as a cameraman.
He first accompanied Haroun Tazieff on expeditions to Congo and Ethiopia, then took part in the sailing race around the world, the Whitbread.
It was on this occasion that he discovered a real passion for the sea.
On June 4, 1975, his proposal to France 3 for a magazine devoted to the sea was accepted.
Thalassa was born!
A first program recorded in Marseille is broadcast in voiceover.
It was only in 1980 that he became its animator.
Success is quickly there and the show goes into prime time.
High-quality sea surveys follow one another – he already spoke of the urgent need to protect the “lungs of the planet” – on seafarers, boats, adventurers, skippers …
In the 2000s, the audience was at its highest level and the show now has its barge-studio moored on the Seine.
From 2004, the broadcast is carried out from a schooner which, every week, docks in a different port for filming.
In 1990, Georges Pernoud created and produced “Faut pas rêve”, a magazine of reports on faraway countries favoring encounters with the population.
For six years, he chaired the Planète + Thalassa thematic channel.
He is also the author of ten books dealing with sailboats, ports, coasts, islands … and of course the title “Bon vent!”, The words on which he closed his program.
Tributes have multiplied with the announcement of his death.
President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to him with these words:
“With Thalassa, which he created and presented for nearly 40 years, Georges Pernoud transmitted to the French his love of the sea and landscapes. It is up to our generation today to protect this nature that we have learned to know. “
The Vendée Globe skippers, from their respective positions in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, have sent him messages.
Nicolas Hulot felt that he contributed to the first steps in ecology.
There have been pouring in from all sides, both from the world of the sea, from the French Navy, from the political sphere and from environmentalists, expressions of sympathy.
“Good luck”, dear Georges Pernoud!
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