Georges Simenon was a regular at the cafés of the place Dauphine. And his pipe and his hat make him look a lot like Maigret, who also came often to Les Trois Marches for lunch. When he was particularly preoccupied with an investigation, everyone could tell by the way he came in, "his heavy step, fixed gaze and apparent bad mood made it apparent that sometime soon, a man or woman was going to confess..."

Simenon guides TV in the footsteps of Chief Inspector Maigret

Quai des Orfèvres, eight o'clock in the evening. It snowed last night, and on the banks of the Seine you can still see patches of white contrasting with the dark and immobile masses of barges moored for the night. Further off, by the place Saint-Michel, you sense the incessant movement of a noisy crowd beneath the broad patch of light, suggesting that over there the pulse of life beats very quickly.

Here, all is different. It would seem that the simple fact of crossing the bridge is all it takes to change the accelerated rhythm of the other bank into a mysterious and slightly frightening calm. The rare passersby slip quickly past the massive buildings of the Palais du Justice.

But one of these lone walkers seems to linger in the vicinity... Unassuming overcoat, soft hat, pipe stuck stubbornly in the corner of his lips, he strolls easily, hands in his pockets, toward the entry of the Judicial Police. He touches his hat with a finger when passing before the sentries, and enters without hesitation this edifice which so many have gone into with handcuffs on their wrists. He follows passageways, climbs stairs, and passes offices to arrive finally before a door on which is inscribed "Chief Inspector Clot, Judicial Police". Our man enters and heads to the imposing armchair that waits behind a desk. He sits down comfortably, with a sigh of satisfaction, and we discover his face and identity – it is Simenon, the father of Maigret.

For twenty-five years, Simenon has dreamt of playing this character that he created, that his millions of readers know so well. Today, it is no longer just a dream, thanks to television, which undertook to confront fiction with reality, to compare Maigret and Chief Inspector Clot, chief of "Homocide," and to see if the locale of the P.J. looks like Simenon's description — In search of Maigret, direct from the P.J., Sunday, February 2, at 9:55 pm.

But let's go back to the office of Chief Inspector Clot, where he is discussing very seriously with his visitor a systematic critique of Maigret, while the author defends himself with a powerful argument:

"I took all my models from right here. I watched them at work, and I picked up their habits. Maigret is a little of Chief Inspector Massu, a little of Chief Inspector Guillaume, who worked here for years. For months, I haunted the Palais du Justice, the place Dauphine, the little corner cafés. In fact it was at the counter of "Les Trois Marches" that I met Massu for the first time..."

Behind the window, in a soft hat, we see Chief Inspector Massu.

Chief Inspector Massu has also come back. He is leaning on the counter at the small café on the corner of the quai de l'Horloge and the place Dauphine, which he visited so often during the thirty-seven years of his career. Just as the first time he met Simenon, he is drinking a glass of red wine, speaking of his profession, of its tricks, its difficulties...

"It's often said that you were a model for Simenon's famous character, Chief Inspector. When did you first meet?

"It must be about twenty-five years ago. The Director of the Judicial Police had advised him to come and see me for information about the way we worked, the way we lived..."

Memories flow. We confuse the two men, Massu and Maigret, seeing only one silhouette, described a hundred times... an unobtrusive character, like anyone you'd pass in the street. Someone who doesn't stand out in a crowd, he divides his life between his family and his profession, of which he has learned all the tricks. He is calm, unhurried but knowing how, when necessary, to act swiftly... to move on a pick-pocket to catch him in the act. He never resorts to brutality during a cross-examination. He's neither a tough nor a show-off — for him the only reason to throw a punch is to capture an offender. Afterwards, it's about psychology, intuition, common sense, a good eye... It's important not to seem too shrewd in this profession, but rather to be the good-hearted old boy that someone can trust. More confessions result from the offer of a beer or a dry white, than a police beating...

Chief Inspector Massu is a model Simenon used to create Maigret. Massu isn't actually a regular reader of detective novels... contrary to what this photo suggests.

In fact, the character of Maigret comes close enough to the reality, but he has nevertheless elements that are his alone... He travels, goes everywhere, in the provinces and abroad, he can do a little of everything. And for us Maigret has several faces. We don't know him only through novels, but also by the movies that have portrayed his numerous investigations. We've seen him under the features of Michel Simon, Harry Baur, Charles Laughton, Jean Gabin, Albert Préjean...

We will review sequences of these movies during Jean-Marie Coldefy's broadcast, with the intent that we will better understand while listening to Simenon himself speak, and by viewing the same locales in the P.J. Exceptionally, television is is being allowed to present all the corners of the Judicial Police, from the offices of Homicide to those of the Vice Squad, from Finance to Criminal Identity. We will be able to judge for ourselves how well Simenon rendered the atmosphere of these troubling places...

We will finish our tour back in the office of Chief Inspector Clot. Will we know then who the true Maigret is?

Georges Simenon will give us his own opinion. "Maigret is a modern man, but one who has also lived in other times. He is now fifty, a mixture of Gabin, Renoir, Préjean... all the actors who have brought him to life on the screen."

Could a single face evoke him by uniting all his features or giving him a new personality? Fernand Ledoux will make the attempt, perhaps, by conducting an unpublished interrogation...

Massu with the producer. The torment of spotlights over, the policeman recovers his old habits quickly, playing 421 with producer Jean-Marie Coldefy.