[PHOTOS] Great interview with the author Nathalie Leclerc, daughter of Félix and bearer of a valuable legacy

Every week, columnist and journalist Karine Gagnon invites you to a major interview with a notable personality from the Capitale-Nationale.

“We had a great relationship,” admits Nathalie Leclerc about her father Félix Leclerc. I am 55 years old and I realize, my love, this relationship has sustained me throughout my life.

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Through her writings and stories, the author Nathalie Leclerc, who carries with her the valuable cultural legacy of her father Félix, icon of the Quebec people, takes us into a universe full of humanity and sensitivity that our world urgently needs in these difficult times.

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The meeting with Nathalie Leclerc will take place in the events hall of the magnificent Espace Patrimonial Félix-Leclerc, which she founded in Saint-Pierre, on the island of Orléans. Not far from there, this great songwriter, poet, playwright and writer lived with his family for several years until his death in 1988.

“We feel comfortable here, there is a wonderful calm, we are at the entrance to the island, I am always very happy when I come here and also proud,” she says.

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Old dream

Félix Leclerc’s only daughter felt the desire to continue her father’s memory and work, “a great gift of life,” from a very early age. Already at the age of 14 she told herself that one day she would create a space that would make this possible and in which it would be possible to produce shows.

In 1992, Nathalie decided to take over the management of the Félix Leclerc Foundation, which had existed since 1983 but was dormant. And his famous dream of creating a space dedicated to him was reinstated. It was inaugurated in 2002. She was its general director until 2014.

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Some lucky people were also able to meet Nathalie Leclerc there this summer, who was responsible for tours. I write “luck” because this woman is not only the daughter of this legendary man, about whom she has many memories and anecdotes, but also has talents as a storyteller.

Great start in life

Nathalie Leclerc was born in 1968 in Boulogne-Billancourt, a suburb of Paris, while her father was on tour in France. Among the first people to view his cradle were Charles Aznavour, Georges Brassens and Raymond Devos, all good friends of his father.

“It’s special, it’s a good start in life,” she whispers with that soft and passionate look, very reminiscent of her father’s.

The little girl then lived with her parents in Saint-Légier, Switzerland, before the family returned two and a half years later to settle on the Île d’Orléans. His brother Francis, a well-known director, was born here.

She remembers the difficult times when her father was on tour abroad. The little girl often had to come home sick because she was bored.

“I felt like my life stopped when he went on tour,” she remembers. The same phenomenon happened when her father came home because she just wanted to enjoy his company.

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A big emptiness

Due to health problems, her father retired from singing and stopped touring when she was 10 years old. Luckily for his daughter, he wrote and was very present at home.

“The emptiness that his disappearance creates in me is unbearable: a blank page, forgotten in the wind,” she wrote of his death when she was just 19 years old.

That day, residents of Île d’Orléans had flown all Quebec flags at half-mast, a gesture that touched his daughter.

For six years after his departure, Nathalie was unable to look at photos of her father, hear his songs, or read him. “I had a hole in my heart, I was really bored.”

Then she reconnected with her work, which was good for her.

Career as an author

In her first book, My Father’s Voice, published in 2016, Nathalie Leclerc talks about all the years she spent with her father.

In her early forties she moved to France with her three children. This return to his roots allowed him to finally focus on writing for two years. Until then, she had always written in secret throughout her life. “Maybe I could have published earlier in my life, but I was so afraid of being ‘the daughter of’…”

In this book, which I really enjoyed and was well received, we discover the deep and unconditional love that she always felt for her father.

She then released My Mother’s Cry in 2020, which focuses on her long, difficult relationship with her mother. The two made peace and grew closer before he died of illness in 2018.

Candidate for the PQ

In 2018, Nathalie Leclerc also ran for the PQ, a party to which her father was very attached and which was then led by Jean-François Lisée. She ran in Charlevoix-Côte-de-Beaupré, but the CAQ wave swept most Quebec counties.

“I loved doing it, it was tiring, I have great admiration for those who do it,” she says.

When we asked if she would try the experience again, she didn’t give up, but she didn’t say “yes” either, she said with a smile.

The author, who aims to publish every four years, is also working on a new manuscript. She will also be Author in Residence for the next Quebec Book Fair.

She also organizes conferences in schools to introduce young people to the work of Félix Leclerc. She talks about her writing and also how her father did it for her, about the importance of persevering and believing in your dreams.

Don’t miss: Wednesday nights at 8:30pm on MATV (Channel 9). [Hélix et illico]609HD [Illico]), the show Karine’s notebook about Nathalie Leclerc.