"Les journalistes en place préfèrent tremper leur plume dans l'ersatz d'encre mélangée avec un peu d'eau croupissante...."

Signed manuscript card of 15 lines by Alphonse Boudard, on a bristol card, to his great friend and companion of well-watered lunches, the Brussels journalist André Tillieu who was, like Alphonse Boudard, a great friend of Georges Brassens but also of Louis Nucéra.
Envelope included.
"merci mon cher Tillieu, de ce formidable papier sur Julien Blanc et ses joyeux. il en faudrait beaucoup de cette encre-là ! Hélas ! elle est rare il faut croire... les journalistes en place préfèrent tremper leur plume dans l'ersatz d'encre mélangée avec un peu d'eau croupissante. à bientôt j'espère... Je finis un gros bouquin "Les combattants du petit bonheur'... l'accouchement comme toujours est difficile. avec toute mon amitié. ABoudard." ["thank you my dear Tillieu, for that wonderful piece on Julien Blanc and his merry bunch. we need much more of that kind of ink! Alas! it's rare it seems... journalists in place prefer to dip their pen in ersatz ink mixed with a bit of stagnant water. see you soon I hope... I'm finishing a big book 'Les combattants du petit bonheur'... the delivery as always is difficult. with all my friendship. ABoudard."]
André Tillieu from Brussels, very close friend and biographer of Georges Brassens, maintained an epistolary correspondence with Alphonse Boudard for almost thirty years, from 1972 until the latter's death in 2000.
The cheeky Parisian writer very quickly showed him his friendship, considering him as one of the rare critics to understand him perfectly to the point of clearly explaining in his chronicles what he himself expressed only incompletely and sometimes confusedly in his books.
André Tillieu thus became part of the small circle of true friends of Alphonse Boudard along with le Gros Georges (Georges Brassens), le Niçois (Louis Nucéra) and René Fallet with whom he loved to share hearty well-watered meals and cycling trips. As death gradually took away his best friends, André Tillieu would remain one of Alphonse's very last pals.