By: Katie Petersen<\/p>\n
Catherine P\u00e9gard considers herself lucky because, she says, \u201cthis is my third life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Standing in a conference room minutes away from the gold-plated iron gates of Versailles, P\u00e9gard explains that she has lived and said goodbye to two lives already: those of a journalist and political advisor. She is now the President of Ch\u00e2teau de Versailles, responsible for everything about the more than 300-year-old palace. But she hasn\u2019t truly said goodbye to who she\u2019s been.<\/p>\n
As she says, \u201cYou are not the man you are at the moment. You are the man you were before.\u201d<\/p>\n
She was a political reporter from 1977 to 2007 and spent much of that time as journalist-editor at the major French magazine Le Point<\/em>. Later, she served as advisor to President Nicolas Sarkozy, who appointed her to the presidency of Versailles in 2011.<\/p>\n When she left journalism in 2007 to be Sarkozy\u2019s advisor, she says, \u201cI knew that it was probably forever, even though I loved that job.\u201d<\/p>\n And she was careful to not blur lines with old colleagues by sharing about her new job. As Elaine Sciolino, former Paris bureau chief for the New York Times, says: \u201cShe was correct, and very strict, and once she went to work with the government she was loyal to the government.\u201d<\/p>\n However, P\u00e9gard also qualifies her status: \u201cIf you are a journalist, you stay a journalist.\u201d Although she left her press pass behind, she brought the lessons from journalism with her. One was learned through interviewing, and found to be equally important in representing the public: \u201cYou can\u2019t just work alone in your office,\u201d she says. \u201cIf you want to know something, you must go talk to the people.\u201d<\/p>\n Another was objectivity. \u201cAnytime he [Sarkozy] asked me anything,\u201d P\u00e9gard says, \u201cI told him what I believed, and that\u2019s it.\u201d In fact, she believes that Sarkozy picked her as an advisor because he thought \u201cI would be free to say what I want with him.\u201d<\/p>\n She also found that in politics, as in reporting, accuracy is important. \u201cYou must be as close as you can to the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n When Sarkozy appointed her as President to Versailles in 2011, she was surprised \u201cbecause I was not supposed to come here.\u201d But as it turned out, her previous lives had been preparing her all along.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat you need to be a journalist, you need at Versailles,\u201d she says. To P\u00e9gard, that includes the previous lessons as well as being \u201ccurious and inventive.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It also requires solid narrative ability: \u201cYou must understand what the story is and you must tell the story.\u201d She describes Versailles as \u201cthe history book of France,\u201d quoting Victor Hugo, but says, \u201cthe story continues.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Naturally, she hadn\u2019t learned everything necessary to run a palace by the time she arrived at Versailles. She spoke about the chateau\u2019s Twitter account, which her team started recently, and said, \u201cwe are very proud of that, especially me, because I learned to do that here. And now I tweet every day.\u201d By: Katie Petersen Catherine P\u00e9gard considers herself lucky because, she says, \u201cthis is my third life.\u201d Standing in a conference room minutes away from the gold-plated iron gates of Versailles, P\u00e9gard explains that she has lived and said goodbye to two lives already: those of a journalist and political advisor. She is now the President … <\/p>\n
\nShe says about Versailles, \u201cYou must always think of what it was, but you must also think of what it is,\u201d because if you don\u2019t, \u201cthen it is a dead museum.\u201d
\nPerhaps the same can be said of a human being. While P\u00e9gard may have lived multiple lives already, she\u2019s still learning like the rest of us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"