Patrick Chêne (born 26 April 1956 in

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

) is a French journalist who worked mainly on

France TV France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, where he commented on the

Tour de France The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage cycle sport, bicycle race held primarily in France. It is the oldest and most prestigious of the three Grand Tour (cycling), Grand Tours, which include the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a ...

between 1989 and 2000.

Biography

Youth

Educated at the Lyons High School of St. Mary Lyon, and then becoming a law graduate, Patrick Chêne began his journalistic career in 1977 as a freelancer at the ''Progrès de Lyon''. He then worked in the letters department, then the sports section of the newspaper.

TV career

In 1982 he joined the newspaper ''

L'Équipe ''L'Équipe'' (, French for "the team") is a French nationwide daily newspaper devoted to sport, owned by Éditions Philippe Amaury. The paper is noted for coverage of association football, rugby, motorsport, and cycling. Its predecessor, '' ...

'', then in 1985 he worked on television at Antenne 2 as a journalist for Stade 2. He commented on the

from 1989 to 2000 in the company of Robert Chapatte, then Bernard Thevenet. Patrick Chêne was appointed sports director of Antenne 2 and presented ''Stade 2'' between March 1992 – July 1995 before moving to

newscast News broadcasting is the medium of broadcasting various news events and other information via television, radio, or the internet in the field of broadcast journalism. The content is usually either produced locally in a radio studio or tele ...

the newsshow

13 heures ''Journal de 13 heures'' or ''13 heures'' (, stylized on-screen as ''13h'') is France 2's afternoon news program, seen weekdays at 1:00 pm (13:00) Central European Time in Metropolitan France. It has been broadcast since 1981. This France 2 news pr ...

France 2 France 2 () is a French free-to-air public television channel. The flagship channel of France Télévisions, it broadcasts generalist programming including news, entertainment (such as dramas, films, and game shows), factual programmes, and sp ...

from 1995 to 1998. He was then director of the sports department of

France Télévisions France Télévisions (; stylized since 2018 as ) is the French national public television broadcaster. It is a state-owned company formed from the integration of the public television channels France 2 (formerly Antenne 2) and France 3 (form ...

from 1998 to 2000, succeeding Jean Reveillon. From 1997 to 1999 he co-hosted

Telethon A telethon (a portmanteau of "television" and "marathon") is a televised fundraising event that lasts many hours or days, the purpose of which is to raise money for a charitable, political or other cause. Most telethons feature heavy solicitatio ...

with Sophie Davant. He also co-hosted ''Les Trésors du monde'' with Nathalie Simon in 1994.

Founder-director of Sporever

After leaving France Télévisions in 2000, he founded and directed the group Sporever which specializes in publishing and content production. He was also host of the ''Histoires de Sport'' on Orange sport.

Back to TV

In September 2010 Patrick Chêne had taken over for Pierre Sled – Also a former presenter of Stade 2 – on '' The Parliamentary Channel'' and presented ''Politique Matin, t''he "little political lunch" of the TV channel. He was also executive producer of the show. In September 2012 Patrick Chêne created a TV channel dedicated to sports news, Sport365 where he hosted the show ''Incognito''. In July 2015 Patrick Chêne announced he was leaving Politique Matin and CPAC but that the shows will continue.

Arts and entertainment

In 2009 he wrote a play, ''C'est pas gagné (It is not won).'' The main performers are his daughter

Juliette Juliette is a feminine personal name of French language, French origin. It is a diminutive of Julie (given name), Julie. People * Juliette Adam (1836–1936), née Lamber, French author and feminist * Juliette Atkinson (1873–1944), American ten ...

and his son-in-law Jean-Charles Chagachbanian. Given the success of the performances, a tour was organized until 2011.. He wrote four TV movies about a policeman in the series ''

Les Cinq Dernières Minutes ''Les Cinq Dernières Minutes'' (; ) is a French crime television series created and written by Claude Loursais, broadcast from 1 January 1958 till 20 December 1996. The show was aired in four series on several channels. The first series was br ...

'': Un mort sur les pavés. The action takes place during the Paris-Roubaix and Patrick Chêne appears as himself.

Private life

Patrick Chêne is the father of five children. One of his daughters,

, is an actress, best known for the role of Juliet in the soap opera ''

Plus belle la vie ''Plus belle la vie'' (More beautiful life) is a French television soap opera based on an idea by Hubert Besson and characters created by Georges Desmouceaux, Bénédicte Achard, Magaly Richard-Serrano and Olivier Szulzynger. On air from 30 August ...

''. His niece, Astrid Veillon, is also an actress, and best known for her role in '' Quai numéro un''.

Radio career

Patrick Chêne has been a radio executive. Indeed, on 1 August 2002, the Sport O'FM radio station, which later became Europe 1 Sport, was put into receivership. Different recovery projects were proposed and it was the tender of Patrick Chêne's Sporever group with FM Sport which was chosen. Patrick Chêne, however, resold quickly to Sport FM at the groupe Contact in August 2003.

Books

* ''A mon tour'', éditions Robert Laffont, 1998 ()

Awards

Patrick Chêne received four ''

Sept d'or A sept () is a division of a family, especially of a Scottish or Irish family. The term is used both in Scotland and in Ireland, where it may be translated as Irish , meaning "progeny" or "seed", and may indicate the descendants of a person ...

''s: * Sept d'or for best sports journalist (1993).