Over the past three months, Connexion readers may have seen Stéphane Bern on Fridays on TF1, as a contestant of France’s version of Strictly Come Dancing (Danse avec les stars).
You may also have seen him on Wednesdays on France 3, as the presenter of history documentary Secrets d’Histoire or Opération Patrimoine, a show spotlighting France’s heritage buildings.
And in May, millions will tune in as Mr Bern commentates on the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest, another of his regular TV gigs dating back to 2015.
Bern hosts regular radio showsStéphane Bern/Facebook
Radio listeners will have heard him on Europe 1, RTL or France Bleu, the three radio stations where he hosts shows or regular slots.
Mr Bern has been a comforting presence in French culture for decades now and French people are yet to show any sign of ‘Bern fatigue’. Quite the contrary, actually.
The more appearances, the better, as the ‘Bern effect’ shows – a term coined by French consultancy firm Nouvelles Marges to quantify the benefits that his exposure has on local tourism.
Maybe you have heard of him through ‘Mission Bern’, a government plan to safeguard France’s built heritage, created by Emmanuel Macron in 2017 which aims to leverage Mr Bern’s media presence and popularity to make patrimoine a ‘cause nationale’.
You may have seen him, finally, on a British channel during coverage of the royal family, when he often appears as an expert on the British crown.
“I have three passions in life: history, England and heritage,” he said in 2019.
The Connexion spoke with Mr Bern about all three.
Questioned on France’s complex relationship with monarchy, Mr Bern said: “We expect the president to behave like a king but, on the other hand, want to cut off his head every five years. We feel orphaned by an imaginary king whom we decapitated. We spend our time craving for a father figure.”
You launched your YouTube channel to reach a younger audience. You once said that the older you get, the younger you become. Are you Benjamin Button?
I do not think so. With age comes a more relaxed view about your image and your career. At the beginning, you want to do everything properly. You think, consciously or unconsciously, about success. You make a big thing about mistakes. There comes a moment when all of that no longer matters and you simply want to be yourself. Period.
Your latest video is about the wedding of Lady Diana. You also appeared in the coverage of her funeral. Watching the images again, did you notice anything you had not seen before?
It is always interesting, years later, to look at archive footage. The illusion of love, at least, was perfect. ‘Whatever love means’, as the then Prince Charles famously said.
Younger generations may have a somewhat unrealistic view of Lady Diana, distorted by social media. Considering I witnessed all those years, met Diana, spoke with her and followed her until her death, I thought it was interesting to be able to talk about what really happened, my truth.
How do you explain the fascination of the French public with Lady Diana?
It was worldwide, not just French people. She was an iconic, radiant figure who embodied something greater than herself. She belongs to that category of iconic figures who transcend their country and their role, like Princess Margaret or Queen Astrid of Belgium.
People often projected false narratives onto her wedding, as if Cosette, the fictional character in Les Misérables, was marrying Prince Charming. She was not Cosette. She came from one of the best families in the kingdom, the Spencer-Churchills. She belonged to the highest English aristocracy. I am not talking about the gentry, to which Queen Camilla belongs. I am talking about the aristocracy.
In her mind, she had a girlish, romantic side. She had a cushion at home that read: ‘You have to kiss many frogs before finding Prince Charming’. She herself projected expectations onto her marriage that were not accurate.
After her death, people would tell me that she was like their daughter, their mother or their sister. It sounds crazy. I felt like asking them: ‘Do you feel as much emotion when you talk about members of your own family?’
What fascinated me most about her was that she eventually learned to love herself through the eyes of others, despite eating disorders, despite being abandoned at birth. She ended up loving herself and reconnecting with reality through the way others looked at her and her humanitarian work. I think that has universal value.
The film Palais Royal!, with French actress Valérie Lemercier, seems to reflect this. I saw it as a kind of tribute to Lady Diana.
There is some truth in that. Valérie Lemercier does not hide it at all. She has always said that she drew inspiration from many places, including England.
Someone said to me during King Charles III’s coronation when Queen Camilla showed up on the balcony, ‘it should have been her’, referring to Lady Diana. Do you understand this nostalgia, this preference for Diana over Queen Camilla?
People will always find something to criticise about Queen Camilla. Have they met her? She has been insulted her entire life without ever responding, even though she simply makes the King of England happy and does her duty. She dreamed of having a quiet retirement and, at 77, is obliged to work, attend inaugurations, travel around the world or do all sorts of things that would exhaust anyone. Yet she does it with great heart and a strong sense of duty. This woman is admirable.
There will always be people who say ‘He or she should not have done this or that’. Such reactions are part of every family. All of that does not matter. The interesting aspect of any monarchy is that it gives power a human face. It represents women and men who resemble us, with their strengths and their weaknesses.
The only real difference between a monarchy and a republic is that when a president’s son gets married, it is a private event; but when the Queen’s son gets married, it goes public.
The British royal family is like a palette of colours, British historian Theodore Zeldin once explained. It ranges from candy pink to emerald green, passing through blue and even grey, which the poor Duchess of Kent was forced to wear because she was last in line. You can identify with all these characters living in Technicolor. The same goes with the TV show The Crown. The show never ends.
Do French people have an ambivalent relationship with royalty, the figure of the king?
A very complex relationship. We expect the president to behave like a king but, on the other hand, want to cut off his head every five years. We feel orphaned by an imaginary king whom we decapitated. We spend our time craving for a father figure.
When the president stays silent, we wonder why he does not speak. When he speaks, we are not interested. It is a very strange relationship.
General de Gaulle once said: ‘The French have a taste for princes. It is a pity they go looking for them abroad.’ In a way, England and Monaco are our two substitute monarchies.
I followed King Charles III on one of his official visits to France. Wandering around the streets of Saint-Denis (Ile-de-France), he was met by people who shouted: ‘Long live the King’. We shout ‘Long live the King’ while at the same time having a somewhat revolutionary soul.
I am drawing inspiration from Emmanuel Macron’s comment in 2015: ‘In French politics, what is missing is the figure of the king, whose death I believe the French people fundamentally did not want.’
He was referring to the French desire for transcendence, for an arbitrating power above political parties. But it is impossible for a president to play the arbitrating role that kings once had, because he is the captain of one of the two teams who then becomes king. That is obviously complicated.
You were once asked whether it is better to live in a monarchic republic or a republican monarchy, saying ‘I have my opinion on the matter’.
As you are aware, I hold both French and Luxembourgish nationalities. I am a French republican and a Luxembourgish monarchist.
I observe that monarchies sometimes consult people more often about what they want. In that sense, they can be a little more democratic. I am just asking the question. What matters most is democracy itself.
You were appointed an honorary member of the Order of the British Empire in 2014…
…from the hands of the Queen of England herself.
What place does this title hold in your life?
It is a prestigious honour and a great privilege that I rank alongside the Légion d’Honneur, the Order of Adolphe of Nassau from the Grand Duke of Luxembourg and the Palmes Académiques for my role as a kind of history teacher to the French people.
About the history teacher bit: you said many French people stop you in the street to thank you. Have you ever thought that you could also make the English love France as well?
It is hard to say, because I am not necessarily aware of it.
The British media often interview me, or at least quote me, about the British royal family because I have been fortunate enough to meet them all and spend a lot of time with the Queen, whom I met six times. I have known the current King Charles for a long time. We were both born on November 14, which makes him a sort of astral twin of mine.
How do you view our community of readers who live in France and are fully involved in everyday French life?
There have always been very strong ties with England. There is a deep crossover between France and England. Calais was English. Guyenne was English. Eleanor of Aquitaine left the King of France to marry the King of England. I like to pay my respects at her tomb at Fontevraud Abbey. It is entirely natural that so many English people love France.
I was even amused that, because of Brexit, many English people have decided to take French nationality. I think of my friend Alex Taylor or Boris Johnson’s father. Many English people feel a dual sense of belonging to both France and England.
Queen Elizabeth once said something very true: “We do not drive on the same side of the road but we are heading in the same direction.”
You are the public face of the Fondation du Patrimoine. Do you see it as the equivalent of the National Trust in England?
Absolutely. The only difference is that the National Trust owns its own monuments, which is not the case for the Fondation du Patrimoine. But the role it plays is very similar.
I borrowed from England the idea of the National Trust Lottery, which became the Heritage Lottery in France. Its success is undeniable: 1,050 sites saved and €330million raised in eight years.
Ultimately, should the interest remain but your face fade away?
I will continue as long as I have the energy and strength, and as long as the French trust me. There have always been defenders of heritage, and that is a good thing.I am only one link in a long chain of heritage defenders. I think of Prosper Mérimée, Eugène Viollet-le-Duc or Victor Hugo. All of them fought for heritage. Others will take over after me. The cause matters more than me.
In 2014, you said that France is an open-air museum. Is that a pessimistic or an optimistic remark?
Optimistic. Everyone claims they want to re-industrialise France, and it is important to have a strong industrial base. But the steel industry is in crisis. Just look at Brandt, the last household appliance manufacturer in France, which closed down its factories last December. On the other hand, France is the most visited country in the world, second in tourism revenue.
Either governments effectively fight to save our industry by taking real measures to prevent Chinese cars from entering France or it accepts the country has become a leisure park for Chinese, American and Japanese tourists. Right now, it does not fully embrace and admit its tourism industry and potential.
France is the most beautiful garden and the most beautiful open-air museum in the world. Accepting it means turning tourism into the country’s most profitable industry. For that to happen, French people need to learn English and other languages, to meet the expectations of the millions of tourists who flood into France every year.
