After the Parisian stages, the tours and the years of full-throttle stand-up, Swann Périssé is looking less for an address than for an anchor point. The comedian, known for combining humor, feminism and ecology in her work, notably with her show “Calme” and her projects around the climate, chose to settle in Montpellier.
Montpellier did not arrive in her heart by chance. In 2023, after two years of living in a caravan across France, Swann Périssé stops there “more by exhaustion than by deliberate choice”, she confides to Free Midday. She fell in love immediately. She found “obviousness”, “an appeasement”a city “sunny, joyful, multicultural”with “lots of things to do” inside and around.
“In Paris, we never feel at home”
Paris, where she was born and raised, leaves her with the memory of a saturated home: the metro and its smells, the crowds, the speed: “In Paris, we have the illusion of having everything we need, yet we never feel at home,” explains Swann Périssé. Montpellier, on the contrary, breathes “the joy of living” and gives it the impression of a city on a human scale, where “at parties and festivals there is room to dance, meet and talk”.
What also attracts him is the possibility of living in the city without giving up escapes. She cites the inexpensive LiO buses, which allow travel across “a diversity of marvelous landscapes” in the region: “Absolute joy” for the comedian. The only regret, very Montpellier: that the tram still doesn’t go all the way to the sea. “That would be happiness”she smiles, imagining being able to leave her work day and go straight to the beach.
A city to tame
Montpellier is not just a refuge. It is also, paradoxically, the place which “a remis le pied à l’étrier” stand-up. She says she resumed her career thanks to the Salon des indépendants, whose look made her “inspire, motivate”. She sees a “feminist cultural island”while the Redline remains, according to her, a club “mythical” from the city center. For the moment, she says she is not yet involved in local associations: she “just settling in”. But the desire is there, starting with “consume better” and get to know the city better.
Swann Périssé tells us about his “biosphere” apartment in Montpellier
In Montpellier, Swann Périssé does not settle in a traditional apartment. She renovated a home designed as a “biosphere”, with the momesu architectural firm. The idea: adapt the habitat to the local climate. Here, the challenge is not the Breton humidity, but the Mediterranean heat and the sun. The apartment must learn to cope with it: heating in winter, cooking food, limiting expensive technologies thanks to low-tech solutions, “cheap, durable, manufacturable”.
The work is finished, but the project really begins now: “The foundations, the walls, the furniture are there”she explains. Remains “make living things grow”. The apartment wants to reproduce part of the forest ecosystem, with hydroponics and even a shower designed to accommodate towers where oyster mushrooms will grow. A domestic, experimental forest, to be used on a daily basis.
His first habits already say a lot about his Montpellier: the vegetarian restaurant Hakko behind the Comédie, walks in the Peyrou gardens, the Arceaux district, the cool streets of l’Ecusson. Nothing spectacular, more a way of taming the city through everyday life. Swann Périssé does not come to Montpellier to put himself on stage, but to finally give concrete form to an ancient dream: to live in a chosen city, at his own pace.
