I know, it’s not very PC to wish a Joyeux Noël to everyone, but you got me, I’m sure. Whatever your faith is, wherever you’re from, whatever kind of holidays you’re celebrating, I just want to wish you the best for these so special holidays.

I’m not very religious myself. I wish I was a little more. It may have helped me during this terrible year we just had and are still having (I know there is just a few days left, but I should be careful, in 2020, the worst is always possible).

Seriously, what a freaking year is was… In the next episode of Rendez-Vous d’Amérique, we’ve compiled the stories we liked this year. So, I went back to all the shows of the year. It was a surreal experience.

The first 2 months were kind of regular. Stories about concerts, film festival, Sundance, to be precise, portraits of artists… the normal stuff.

And then, the pandemic hit us. Everything closed. No concerts, no festival, no movies, nothing… and we still had a show to do. For a couple of weeks, it was total panic. We reedited old stories to air a second time. We were in sheer panic… But then, we got organized…

Starting mid-May, beginning of June, we found a way to get the show on the air with new stories. Interviews recorded on Zoom, stories about movies airing on TV5MONDE Cinema-On-Demand and other streaming platforms, news about all the different cultural experiences with a French accent that you could get online (museum visits, theater plays, ballets, etc…), portrait of French artists and francophone entrepreneurs that were still working despite the crisis, big names like Nicola Sirkis from Indochine giving us exclusive interviews, stories about virtual movie festival… All this kind of stuff…

In other words, we found a way to give you the best possible show all year long. It wasn’t easy. We did our best. But we found a way…

And that’s the human spirit, ladies and gentlemen… Whatever the circumstances, we change, we adapt, we find a way. Even in the direst of circumstances, like this year was sometimes.

That’s why everybody seems so much optimistic about 2021. Yes, the vaccine is coming, yes, we will have a new President, yes, we’re getting close to the darn light at the end of the longest tunnel ever… But, nothing will really change January 1^st 2021. Covid will still be there, hospitals will still be overpacked, the economic crisis will still be here, probably even worse. But, we humans, strange animals that we are, we find a way to be optimistic. Why? Probably because we know more than ever, than we can change, we can adapt, we can find a way…

So yes, let’s allow ourselves some optimism.

And let’s allow ourselves to have the best Christmas and a great end of the not-so-great year. See you all on the other side of 2020!

To explore the 2020 Francophone highlights in America, tune in to Rendez-vous d’Amérique on TV5MONDE USA. Click here for more information.

Exploring cultural diversity at major events, at-home virtual experiences, and everything in between - Rendez-vous d'Amérique invites you to discover Francophone culture in America. Your host on this journey is Didier Allouch - reporter, cinephile, and a familiar face on the red carpet. Click here to learn how you can subscribe to TV5MONDE USA and never miss an episode!