Les amants d'Hérouville, a tragic story in rock and glamour

Flames ravaged the castle of Hérouville. The owner Michel Magne comes to see that all his compositions from his youth to 1969 have gone up in smoke. It is certainly reached but it is only the beginning of the history of this former coaching inn in the Val d'Oise which will become a mythical place of rock. We will discover it through the character of Marie-Claude, Michel's future wife. The summer following the fire, the composer took this young teenager in his white Porsche. Arriving at the castle, she discovers crazy parties with of course musicians but also horses and frogmen. Guests bathe in evening dress. This castle is populated by colorful characters with a cook who recites Baudelaire and lectures his boss. We discover how the cancellation of a psychedelic music festival allowed Michel to host a Grateful Dead concert and a village party where LSD mixed with great wines from Bordeaux.

It is by renting the studio that Magne pays for the receptions and maintenance of the Château d'Hérouville. Indeed, Michel Magne perceives before the other French the evolution of the studios. They are no longer huge labs with technicians in the center of cities but places of inspiration in the countryside. French artists and record companies initially refused this proposal. Salvation will come from abroad through Magne's perseverance and his address book. At its peak, the Château d'Hérouville brought together two studios and welcomed the elite of English pop of the seventies – Elton John, David Bowie, T. Rex… but also French: Michel Polnareff, Eddy Mitchell, Johnny Halliday… The sessions are multiplying but also the bills. Michel cedes the management of the studios to a Parisian company and gradually finds himself shelved. He even left the castle to settle in the South. This departure marked the end of the peak of his career.

To make us enter the crazy atmosphere of the Château d'Hérouville, the style of the designer Romain Ronzeau recalls a modernized clear line with clean lines but which let the hand of the artist shine through. He seeks simplicity – we can think of Dupuy and Berberian – but behind this purity, the composition of the pages is brilliant. Behind the boxes, we can find a background of abstract lines or staves. The rigid frame of the beginning explodes into a tapestry of psychedelic motifs at the Dead concert. The colors darken as Michel Magne's glory recedes. This drawing mixes from the first pages with personal photos of Michel Magne wandering in the rubble. Indeed, with the screenwriter Yann Le Quellec, they make the choice to build a composite book like a mosaic.

Officially hired to be the babysitter of the children, Marie-Claude becomes much more than that because Michel is fascinated by the joy of life of the girl. He flirts with her. But Marie-Claude is not fooled because if she enjoys the holidays, she also sees the financial excesses and the lack of organization. Little by little, she became the intendant of the Château d'Hérouville and then the companion of the master of the estate. She is a discreet but decisive shadow.

On the contrary, Michel always wants to be at the center. An exploded chronology scattered throughout the story reveals his childhood. His childhood was marked by the Second World War. Very young, Michel is a gifted pianist but a schoolboy unable to accept discipline. He left school at 15 and a half to become a professional musician. It will fit into all genres and make people vomit at a concert. This chaotic path will make him a film music composer with a relaxed and provocative attitude. He always goes fast, faster than the others. This whimsical man drives the sound engineer crazy by his requests and amateurism. Since the beginning of his career, he has had crazy expenses and his personal and professional life are mixed. He does too much. He takes pills to keep up a superhuman pace and lets the finances plunge. His friends flee him and Magne never stops wanting to get his castle back.

The authors have done a long research work that is included in the comic published by Delcourt : a plan of the castle of Hérouville at the beginning, many private and unpublished photos, extracts from the newspapers on the wedding in the middle of the story, discographies, a chronology of the castle of Hérouville and recording sessions at the end of the volume.