Par Christian Bouzols
Published on
Our friend Jean-Yves Hirel, press correspondent for Malouin Country for 26 years in the sector Cancale, died this weekend at 85as a result of a bad fall at Bécherela small city of books that looked so much like this literary madman, where he had been living for a few years with his wife.
A novel life
Jean-Yves is a life that resembles a novel. The story of a man with a thousand curiosities and independence pegged to the body, “who always did everything as he wanted”, remembers his son Erwann.
Guided by his passions and boundless energy, this big-hearted colossus began his adult life in the hell of the Algerian warwhere he was an infantry officer, before becoming a reserve lieutenant in the navy.
A man of passion
Back in his native Brittany, he was then responsible for advertising in Ouest-France, but office life was not for him. Jean-Yves at the time had his Ingres violins: sports, music and the arts.
First Breton black belt 5e judo dan and state graduate, he passed on his passion to hundreds of athletes for more than 40 years, creating dojos all over the country. Ille-et-Vilainewhich earned him the award of the youth and sports medal.
From kimono to sheet music
Emeritus judoka, Jean-Yves was also a songwriter. He will release two albums and lead the Chanson Bretagne collective.publishing a directory of artists updated each year, then will be named in 1981 Director of the brand new Regional Song Center in Brittany.
“All the great composers and musicians, but also the artists and writers of the region came to the house”, recalls his son Erwann, who underlines his unfailing friendship forged with the Malouins. Gwen and Dodik Jegou, who held the House of Poets at arm’s length for years.
press correspondent
It was in 1994 that Jean-Yves pushed the door of Pays Malouin to become our correspondent in the Cancale region. An activity that suited him well, made of encounters and curiosity for the small and big stories that make up the life of the country.
From Saint-Coulomb to Saint-Benoit-des-Ondes, this insatiable worker knew all the alleys and a good part of the inhabitants of the canton, whose roads remember these improbable Citroën CX, another of his passions. He renovated a large number of them, and four years ago, bought a last one, a 9-seater from another era, when he could hardly drive anymore because of a declining view…
Reading, however, accompanied him to the end: dozens of magazines, but also poetry and old books that he had always collected.
“Tributes are not my style”
Jean-Yves left the Pays Malouin in 2020, on tiptoe. He didn’t want to be celebrated or thanked for a simple drink of friendship. “Tributes are not my style,” he had simply slipped to me on the phone.
We pay him here, this tribute. He would not have liked it but it is so deserved, at a time when this jack-of-all-trades has just bowed out, surrounded by his family.
Le Pays Malouin sends its most sincere condolences to his wife and two sons, Erwann and Judikaël.
The funeral of Jean-Yves will be celebrated on Friday April 22 at the cathedral of Dol-de-Bretagne at 10:30 a.m.
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