It is the summer of victory for Les Bleus. A memorable summer. The last one before the explosion of the Internet and mobile phones. A turning point, for an entire country and for a high school student from the Vosges on the verge of leaving adolescence behind: Maria Pourchet. Now a writer, she revisits that era today, in her own words and through archival material, a time tattooed into our memories.
To the sound of Louise Attaque’s violins, a country both strange and familiar comes into view, one where people still pay for their cinema tickets in francs to watch a young unknown named DiCaprio triumph in Titanic. 1998 is the summer of “black-blanc-beur” France, a dream of national unity set against a backdrop of major social reforms: the 35-hour workweek and the PACS civil union. But it is also the Clinton-Lewinsky affair, the Festina scandal, and the arrival of Viagra… So many Proustian madeleines and archival gems, magnificently brought to life by the author’s biting style. 1998, the Summer We Turned 18 paints a vibrant fresco that invites us to reflect on the present and, for the span of a summer, relive the age of endless possibilities.