The Voice Behind SNCF: Simone Hérault Reveals the Untold Story of Her Iconic Announcements

2023-07-28 19:26:00

By Bertrand Bielle

&nbsp|&nbspJournaliste

Curious by nature, Bertrand is always on the lookout for the smallest scoop. Passionate about football, he is never far from football and all the news that comes with it. However, showbiz or political events are also part of his privileged journalistic research.

Currently in the midst of a wave of holiday departures and crossover weekends in stations, the SNCF has been carried by the same voice for more than 40 years. The one who makes the announcements. She agreed to show her face for “BFMTV”.

Simone Hérault (the cult voice of SNCF), on “BFMTV”. Dailymotion

The sequel after the ad

Like every summer, the SCNF (Société nationale des chemins de fer français) has work to do, with holiday departures and crossover weekends in stations. So much so that certain unforeseen events sometimes disrupt their organization. Like this signaling failure that occurred this Friday, July 28, 2023 at the Gare du Montparnasse in Paris. This disrupted the movement of trains, as reported by France Info.

But the company can on the other hand count on the same voice for more than forty years to make the announcements, namely that of Simone Hérault. An actress specializing in voice-overs, who revealed herself as rarely this morning on BFMTV, during an interview carried out by video. In particular, she recounted her way of working: “When I started, we recorded globally. All the sentences (…) But since the 1990s groups of words have been recorded which become computer files and which are concatenated and then distributed in stations“.

She then returned to how this incredible and unusual adventure began for her, before speaking about her remarkable longevity and loyalty to society: “I come from radio, I worked at ‘FIP’ for almost 30 years as a presenter. And it was at ‘FIP’ that the SCNF did a casting. We were 2 to be chosen for a certain time and when the computers arrived, it was necessary that all the words are connected. So we had to choose a voice. And I had this chance. This trust that the SCNF has given me has lasted for 42 years!”

I don’t tell them

An interview that began with a question that we often have to ask him: “Do people recognize her? She answers : “In real life, I have the same voice but not the same intonations and the same vocabulary. So obviously, no one recognizes me”. “Even when you’re shopping or talking to strangers on the street?“, then asked the journalist, to which Simone Hérault replied, with a lot of humor and using the intonation she takes when she records announcements for the SNCF: “No, because I don’t say to them: ‘madam sir, would you please give me a not overcooked baguette!’ So no, they don’t recognize me. Don’t overdo it!”.

A very nice sequence, which must have pleased many French people who have been traveling with his voice for so many years…

The sequel after the ad

The sequel after the ad

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