Three hundred pipes and he smokes them all...

The Pipe Club, June 1967 .

Now I'll tell you how my meeting with George Simenon went, and I already know that you won't believe me because it seems like something out of the fantasy of "Maigret's father", rather than something that actually happened: but I have a conscience okay, because I limit myself to writing the pure truth, and then I have witnesses (the photographers of Farabola and the Associated Press), as well as the tape recording of everything that was said on that occasion. It happened, therefore, that the undersigned went to interview the very popular Belgian-French-Swiss writer, taking advantage of his stop in Milan on his spring trip to Italy. I went to interview him for RAI: ​​a portrait of Simenon, writer, man of letters, character. Nothing to do with the world of pipes. Then, I said to myself, if the right opportunity comes I can also ask them a couple of questions for the friends of the “Club”. Presentations (with the other name that I use for RAI and for the important Milanese newspaper that gives me work) comes with the registration. Simenon talks about himself, about his novels, about Italy, and suddenly comes out with this exact phrase: «I am in love with Italy; also because it is one of the very few countries in the world that has a Pipe Club, but even has a magazine that bears this name; a beautifully done magazine, which I even read avidly, because, even for an old smoker like me, it is always full of new and interesting things. You, sir, may not know it, but I assure you that "The Pipe Club" is a publication that I consider a small Bible for smokers! I swallow with difficulty, I roll my eyes, I cough out the smoke from my deadly morning cigarette (you have a bad habit!) and finally I manage to explode: why, Mr. Simenon, are you coming to talk to me about this publication, as if it were a question of his little secret! But you realize that you are talking to one of the columns of the "Pipe Club", with Giorgio Colarossi, who tries, not always understood, to valorise even in these columns the characters of the big world, who - by smoking the pipe - contribute to give prestige to the entire noble company! And I flaunt in front of him a copy of the magazine, which I had providentially stuck in my bag. Now it's Simenon's turn to roll his eyes: but he quickly recovers. « Well, no one will certainly be able to say that I complimented the publication out of pure courtesy, since I didn't know who I was dealing with. And so I repeat that the little Italian I can read is useful above all to read your periodical, according to Simenon! ». A hug escapes us, the photographers immortalize the scene, and now we are launched onto the plane that unites us. The questions now concern only our queen. I take my pipe out of my pocket and Simenon (and two!) widens his eyes: it's no coincidence that I had chosen a Savinelli « Autographe ».He turns it over and over in his fingers, he weighs it, he smells it, he looks at it from all sides and concludes: «This is not a pipe, it's a small monument. I don't have anything like that, honestly. Okay, let's talk about me as a smoker. It's true, I have around 300 pipes in my house in Switzerland, but be careful, I'm not a collector: I don't have rare pieces, I don't have anything in my showcase; I have 300 pipes that I like and that I smoke regularly, alternating maybe ten in a day. For this short trip to Italy, I brought about thirty of them." And pipes emerge from all the pockets of the great writer, as in a magic trick. I ask him which blend he prefers, and he politely pretends not to understand the question, takes out his leather bag and fills my "monument" with four or five powerful pinches. « I always smoke sweet and rather light: Royal Yacht, mostly, with added Virginia. I leave the harsh and strong tobacco to my Maigrct." The undersigned is not a great connoisseur, but I enjoyed the Simenon blend very much. Let's move on with the questions: with the fateful one. Why does Simenon, who has been a perfect pipe smoker for over 40 years, place his "companions" with the bowl facing upwards? «Sorry, but I won't compromise on this. The pipe must be left to rest like this; only in this way does the humidity disappear completely"· I point out to him that the majority of pipe makers are against it, but he stiffens, he doesn't listen to reason. Okay, here's a starting point for letters and debates. But let's continue with the questions and answers. « I always smoke, at work and when I rest, in the morning and at night; life without the pipe would have a different meaning for me. Why did I "put the pipe" in my Maigret's mouth? Because it is the final touch for the character: calm, calm, always sure of himself. Only a pipe smoker has these qualities; or, if you like the phrase twisted this way, let's say that someone who is calm and confident can only smoke a pipe. Gino Cervi? I know him very well, I know that he is your honorary president; I met him before he even began to take on the role of my Maigret, and I immediately said to myself, hearing him speak and seeing him move, well, this would be a perfect Maigret. I wasn't deceiving myself, was I?" Let's talk a little more about Cervi, and point out that both Simenon (Maigret's father) and our honorary president (television and film Maigret) prefer delicate and sweet blends, while the commissioner, notoriously, only smokes very strong « gray". Simenon replies that, when Maigret was "born" in his imagination, he imagined her in this way: a sweeter tobacco just wouldn't have suited him. « Maigret is the man with robust and precise tastes; I couldn't see him smoking a delicate blend after one of his famous lunches." Speaking of the topic, we tell him how our prof. Ramazzotti "pinched" Cervi, who, in a certain episode of Maigret,he orders an agent to buy him some "sweet, naturally" tobacco, and how the actor justified himself by claiming that "at that moment, Cervi had the upper hand over Maigret"; Simenon enjoys the anecdote and continues talking about pipes. « Apart from the matter of the upturned bowl, I don't think I can distinguish myself for other reasons from the great mass of pipe makers, from a technical point of view; yes, it is true that my pipes enjoy a special atmosphere, since my entire house above Geneva is perfectly air conditioned, and perhaps this helps to always keep them in perfect condition. But I... I haven't had that house forever, and when I was just a journalist colleague of his, the pipes suffered the heat or the cold with me. I believe that, as long as they are good, they do not "deteriorate" excessively because of this." Last "technical" question: Simenon's preferences on pipe types. «In this field I am uniquely flat; I like really normal pipes, neither too large nor small: I love the classic line, I may like the quirky ones, but when I see them in other pipes, not in mine. As for nationality, I make no difference: everything that is good is good." The discussion continues for an hour, and there would be many things to tell about Simen as a man, a man of letters, a character. But I'll stop here, dear director; if not, who hears the reader Mr. Ruggero Vio of Genoa?

Giorgio Colarossi