| Time lapse – Eiffel tower at sunset. Sparkling lights | Music | 00:00 |
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| CORCORAN: It was culture and philosophical enlightenment that earned Paris the title “City of Light”. | 00:13 |
| Lights on Parisian monuments | Music | 00:25 |
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| CORCORAN: Now, when darkness falls the “city of light” takes on a very different hue, that of an illuminated masterpiece. | 00:29 |
| Paris night. Cafes, couples | Music | 00:39 |
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| CORCORAN: Urbane Parisians never seem to tire of this nocturnal splendour, | 00:42 |
| Krystel walks | and who better to expound on the seductive beauty of this city – than “Miss Paris” – Krystel Norden. KRYSTEL: Paris at night! | 00:47 |
| Krystel | Paris at night is a city that never dies, a city that never sleeps. There are illuminations everywhere, always a lot of people in the street. There are a million things to do in Paris. | 00:28 |
| Carousel | Music | 01:11 |
| Lit buildings | CORCORAN: But when it comes to naming the architect of this vision-splendid, Miss Paris – along with nearly everyone else in the city – is uncharacteristically lost for words. | 01:15 |
| Krystel | KRYSTEL: Francois Jousse? I confess I haven’t heard of him. | 01:27 |
| Fleeting glimpses of Francois at night walking the streets | Who is he?... Who is he?... | 01:33 |
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| CORCORAN: Francois Jousse has spent his working life cloaked in the anonymity of night. | 01:42 |
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| Now he emerges into the soft glow of one his own lighting creations. | 01:50 |
| Lit monuments | Parisian born and bred, 66 year old Francois Jousse joined City Council as a sanitation engineer – eventually overseeing an army of two thousand garbage collectors. But in the early 1980’s, he saw the light. FRANCOIS: Little by little, | 02:00 |
| Francois/ Monuments | when you work with light, you’re dealing with poetry, with beauty and you go well beyond the job of an engineer. CORCORAN: So you regard this as poetry with lighting? FRANCOIS: I regard this as love. | 02:22 |
| Lit buildings | Music | 02:45 |
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| CORCORAN: Over the next quarter century he and his team re-lit Paris. | 02:55 |
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| Purely functional security lighting was removed. Replaced with this - on three hundred structures - | 03:02 |
| Arc de Triomphe | including the landmark Arc de Triomphe – which apparently is still a work in progress. FRANCOIS: Today we have a problem; we have made restoration works at the top of the Arc, | 03:13 |
| Francois and Corcoran near Arc | and you can see you have a black line and it is not the real view of the monument. CORCORAN: So the Arc de Triomphe is not quite a triomphe at the moment. FRANCOIS: Not today, come back tomorrow (laughter) | 03:30 |
| Moulin Rouge neons | Music | 03:46 |
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| CORCORAN: And no one ever said that art comes cheap. The City of Paris has the mother of all power bills. | 03:53 |
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| Music | 04:03 |
| Eiffel Tower from below | FRANCOIS: Well the total cost will include energy, maintenance and renovation work. | 04:05 |
| Francois | It’s thought to be around 150,000 euros per day. | 04:16 |
| Eiffel Tower lift | Music | 04:25 |
| Time lapse. Sunset over Notre Dame. Lights come on | CORCORAN: And this is his piece de resistance. | 04:44 |
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| Music | 04:49 |
| Details of Notre Dame façade
| FRANCOIS: Well here we are in front of Notre-Dame. It’s indeed one of the last buildings which has been worked on and lit in Paris. It took a long time | 04:56 |
| Francois | and a lot of people but I think it’s one of the successes one can be really proud of. | 05:11 |
| Notre Dame façade | CORCORAN: And the task had more than its fair share of controversy. Catholic priests accused Monsieur Jousse of wanting to transform the cathedral into a Gothic Disneyland. | 05:18 |
| Corcoran and Francois at front of Notre Dam | CORCORAN: I read somewhere that one of the priests described the lighting plan as sacrilegious. | 05:32 |
| Francois/Notre Dame | FRANCOIS: What I experienced every day was the clergy fearing that our light might disturb some ceremonies like the ordination of priests or the funeral ceremony. | 05:38 |
| Bridge over Seine. Tilt up to Notre Dame | Music | 05:55 |
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| CORCORAN: But now, all is forgiven if not forgotten, as God’s children bask in the glow of the Jousse vision. | 05:58 |
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| Music | 06:05 |
| Francois walks on street at night | FRANCOIS: It’s true I’m sorry it’s not the light of the city which gave the city this name | 06:13 |
| Francois | but now everyone associates the light of the city with the name of “City of Light”. I’m very proud to have been part of this image. | 06:22 |
| Paris busy night time street scape | Music | 06:34 |
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| CORCORAN: It was the artists, writers and intellectuals that helped make Paris the city it is today. Perhaps the name Francois Jousse – should also be up there in lights. | 06:39 |
| Krystel | KRYSTEL: Thank you, Francois Jousse. (blows kiss to camera) | 06:54 |
| Francois outside Notre Dame | CORCORAN: Now after 45 years on the job, the master of light has just retired. Paris city council doesn’t intend to replace him. | 07:02 |
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| But there are no regrets – he’s heading to New York to light up the Big Apple – after all, the night is still young. | 07:13 |
| Francois walks away | Music | 07:22 |
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| Reporter: Mark Corcoran Producer: Ian Altschwager Editor: Bryan Milliss | 07:36 |