What are some great French voice actors, readers or radio presenters?

Question

I'm looking for good French voice actors that are/were known for being either great film readers, radio presenters, readers of audiobooks, etc. I want to find their work to have something pleasing to an ear to listen to while I'm learning French.

The ideal example that I have in mind would be a francophone with a voice like Stephen Fry, whose voice was equally widely recorded. Or maybe you know a French radio series similar to e.g. the English Cabin Pressure?

I already came across two great voices of Bernard Giraudeau and Jean-Louis Trintignant both who read Le Petit Prince, with Giraudeau having also read Harry Potter.

I also came across this great radio series of Les Aventures de Tintin.

I'm looking for either further names of such people or names of some well-known and liked old radio programs, names of well-read audiobooks that I can later try to find.

Edit: Just to highlight - I'm not looking for French music. In this question, by great voice I mean the great speech.

Answer 1

A known voice in France was Thierry Gilardi's. He was a famous soccer sportcaster. There are tons of records of him.

Also when my friends and I were younger, we used to listen to le Donjon de Naheulbeuk which is a funny spoken story. Voices are pretty "nasal" though.

Finally, you could listen to any and all TV show as they are pretty much all translated to French. A known French TV show is Kaamelott. They sometimes use old French words to better fit the context but it should not affect your learning.

EDIT, these fit way better what you asked for :

• First of all, Le Dessous des Cartes is a perfect match. It talks about maps and history. Speed is perfect for a beginner, it's quite known in France and really interesting. There are 10 years of recording.
• Then, a little bit faster: e-penser (read y penser). He talks about physics, philosophy etc in French. His voice is yet known only by "young adults" who spend too much time on the Internet. A great point is that his youtube videos provide subtitles so you can keep track of what he is saying in case of difficulties.
• Once you will feel comfortable with these guys, you could try to listen to Chroma. They talk about quite old movies and explains why they are good or bad, in which context they were shot etc. It's really interesting but they speak really fast and make a lot of play on words. It's not much known yet, even though they started a crowdfunding and got funded 20 000€ in less than an hour and then, reached 200 000€ by the end, even though they asked the website to stop the crowdfunding thing once they got their first 20 000€.

Answer 2

Two excellent story tellers (who could really captivate or even electrify TV and radio audiences) are:

• Alain Decaux, who was a member of the Académie Française. He specialized on historical topics (See Alain Decaux raconte).
• Pierre Bellemare. He was more into real-life mystery stories.

If you search for them on Youtube you should find plenty of material.

Caution: Temporary side effects could include loss of sleep, loss of interest for family or work, inability to register conversations, etc... If that happens, just stop the treatment.

Answer 3

I was thinking of Fabrice Luchini. For example, from Wikipedia, he released "Fabrice Luchini lit fragments d'un discours amoureux" in 2011 on AudioLib.

Answer 4

N'oublions pas Macha Béranger et son émission de radio Allô Macha (sa dernière émission).

Answer 5

I can suggest Bernard Métraux. He is the french voice for Bill Murray, Kevin Spacey and many others... his voice is so familiar that is the kind of voice French people will recognize without knowing how from.

He notably read Le Trône de Fer (A Game of Thrones) in french audio book and does the voices of all characters.

Answer 6

Martin McGuire and Dany Dubé are really good sports casters on 98.5FM. They commentate the Canadiens games over the radio. Martin talks extremely fast. Way faster than anything heard on TV since he has to paint a picture of what's happening. He speaks with passion, especially if the game is exciting. Dany, the colour commentator, is a lot mellower but his pace is necessary or else you would have a heart attack. Both are knowledgeable about the sport. As a plus, you have Ron Fornier, a semi-grouchy retired referee, who takes calls and gives his own take after the game. He's really funny and has a thick Quebec accent. Everybody loves and respects him.

Answer 7

Serge Reggiani French singer and actor, sings here "Ma liberté" of Georges Moustaki, one of the most famous french songs.

Reggiani voice is ... vibrant.

Answer 8

A remarkable source of speech are the fellietons of Radio France, some of which might be found here as well as here. They are generally read by people with good radio voices, and recorded in good quality.

Among them you can find for example:

• Comment pousser les bords du monde: Bob Dylan (15-episode fellieton, including music passages, which makes listening even more engaging and interesting, yet there's a lot of French language to listen to)

Another excellent series is Les Aventures de Tintin - collection feuilletons radiophoniques. Free excerpts from the series can be found on ina.fr website, e.g. here.