"Contrairement à ce qu'on pourrait croire, je ne suis pas dans le coup"

Amusing press review commented by Antoine Blondin addressed to Roger Nimier at his Parisian office at the N.R.F.
Blondin sends his lifelong friend newspaper clippings from local papers which he pastes on squared sheets.
Envelope included.
Beautiful manifestation of the anarchist and zany spirit that guided the steps, not often steady but always soaked, of Antoine Blondin, and of the fraternal and thunderous friendship that united him with Roger Nimier.
The star of sports journalism prepares for Nimier a collection of news items taken from Ouest France Mayenne:
Feeding his own reputation as a ribald and wine-soaked bohemian, he sends the story of a memorable drinking bout that he could easily have been the cause of: "He mistakes the gendarmerie for a tavern [...] Camille Paumelle, 36 years old, yesterday evening invited a chance acquaintance to drink a 'good bottle' and led him... towards the gendarmerie" reads the press clipping. Blondin adds "P.S.: Contrary to what one might think, I am not involved in this affair". On the same sheet, Blondin pastes a clipping about a "public mounting of bulls [...] Cow having the most beautiful udder" and adds: "P.S. contrary to what one might think, I am not involved in this affair either."
He pastes on a second sheet a newspaper clipping titled "24 hours around the world" and parodies it as "24 hours in the vile world". The press clipping continues thus: "The 'Times' magazine which had published on its last page a large photo of French-made tanks transported by special train to Lebanon, has been seized in Beirut"; Blondin adds "As for the French-made charms transported by special train to Lebanon, they will soon be the subject of a special page in Mayenne-Confidential".
Regarding the deep friendship that Blondin showed to Roger Nimier and the myth of the Hussards, the author declared to Emmanuel Legeard who was interviewing him: "It's the 'hussards' who are an invention. A 'Sartrean' invention. In reality, the story is my friend Frémanger, who had launched into publishing, who had only one author, that was Jacques Laurent, and only one employee, that was me. Laurent wrote, and I tied up the packages of books. So we knew each other, we were friends, and on the other hand... on the other hand, Roger Nimier was my best friend. Nimier, I saw him every day. I saw him every day for thirteen years. But Laurent and Nimier didn't frequent each other at all. They had very different conceptions. We were brought together only once. We met on rue Marbeuf, at the Quirinal, for lunch. We discussed Italian wines and the cooking of noodles. For two hours."