Bernard Pivot

Bernard Pivot
Bernard Pivot at a book fair in Paris, France, in March 2009
Born	(1935-05-05) May 5, 1935 (age 82) Lyon, France
Occupation	Journalist, television personality

Bernard Pivot, OC, CQ (French: [pivo]; born May 5, 1935) is a journalist, interviewer and host of French cultural television programmes. He is the chairman of the Académie Goncourt.

Pivot was born in Lyon, the son of grocers. During World War II, his father, Charles Pivot, was taken prisoner and his mother moved the family home to the village of Quincié-en-Beaujolais, where Bernard Pivot started school.

In 1945 his father was released and the reunited family returned to Lyon. At age 10, Pivot went to a Catholic boarding school where he discovered a consuming passion for sport; a passion which helped teachers overlook his general mediocrity in all traditional school subjects except French language and history.

After starting law studies in Lyon, Pivot entered the Centre de formation des journalistes (CFJ) in Paris where he met his future wife, Monique. He graduated second in his class.

After an internship at Le Progrès in Lyon, he studied economic journalism for a full year, then joined the Figaro Littéraire in 1958.

In 1970, he hosted a humorous daily radio programme that often raised political issues, not appreciated by Georges Pompidou.

In 1971, the Figaro Littéraire closed and Pivot joined Le Figaro. He left, however, in 1974 after a disagreement with Jean d'Ormesson. Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber invited him to start a new project which led to the creation of a new magazine, Lire, a year later.