L'EXPRESS

An article from the EXPRESS by Marion Fraestraes Traduction by Sélima AYOUB Let’s marry them provided they are alike. Douce has always been making up lovers. Today a professional matchmaker she goes on uniting people 80/100 successful. Her name is Douce but she should rather have been called “Dynamite”. She is also gentle but with passion. Since she was twelve she has been trying very hard to make up lovers as others sculpt, paint, or versify because Douce Albertini has a gift : she instinctively knows how to match people. She often unexpectedly mediated for her friends, before offering her gift to the public by setting up her own business. She has a passion for love novels such as books written by Daphné Du Maurier, Margaret Mitchell, whose pages are dog-eared by being read again and again. Before launching out into business, Douce took an interest in the pros of romance in card – index files. Their mercantile icy indifference disgusted her. Above all never mistake her for a matrimonial agency it exasperates her. If really necessary  call her a matchmaker. She does say she marries people, meaning she matches, joins up, unites people. Each year, she receives more than 600 requests. Those candidates must prove they are single and write a document in which they tell her about their lives ,their loves, their desires as well as about their resentments and their problems. What did not work out with their first love ,what they loved in the former one. After that only she meets them or not, such as this woman demanding a man who would make her forget her husband , gone with another woman. Or this businessman who wanted to pay a husband to his daughter without her knowing about it. Because ”feeling” makes her work :she cannot work for someone she has not got any particular feelings for. To be aware of that she receives her candidates one day long if it is necessary so that they can speak about themselves  “often through an introspection ,cries and  tears“ Few of them are chosen, hardly about 30 a year .She calls them her “accomplices” never her clients. Besides money is quickly forgotten (from about 9200euros ). Yes indeed she is a matchmaker but of the 21 st century. Before any research she must make friends with her “accomplice” ,discuss over a  drink, exchange books, the main point is to know who I am dealing with , and make this person feel more self-confident .”Most accomplices have things  to settle before being ready for a new encounter“, Such as this boulimic young woman I agreed to work for in spite of her handicap. Today her crisises  are becoming less frequent. There is also this woman whose husband always thought she was stupid, I must prove her she is not and show her she can be attractive. Marriage is often the last stage “. For each of them Douce will meet at least 10 people she has carefully selected. Sometimes she accosts people in the street “are you single?” She asks them before inviting them to lunc. The person who is concerned does not know anything about that Douce will introduce someone to her only after a long and loving choice, sometimes in spite of the given preferences : to Lucy who only loved dark-haired men she introduces Vincent Perez’s fair - haired clone … and they love each other. Without telling them beforehand she made them meet as friends and it is a success. With modesty she puts forward she is 80 per cent successful !

 

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