Alex Hugo à Lusagne – Samuel le Bihan à la recherche d’espaces sauvages et de paysage grandioses

The Alex Hugo detective series, based on the true story of a policeman who moved to the mountains of the USA to retrain, needed a mountain setting to play a major role. So the France 2 teams criss-crossed the Southern Alps in search of the last wild but accessible corners. Their choice fell on the Hautes-Alpes.

Discover the landscapes of Alex Hugo and Lusagne

The famous Alex Hugo series is filmed in the Hautes-Alpes, and very regularly in the Hautes Vallées – La Grave, Clarée, Izoard.

Nous les avons rencontrés à Cervières en juin 2019 et avons pu interviewer Samuel Le Bihan et Lionel Astier.

Pourquoi ont-ils choisi le Briançonnais ?
« Il y a déjà l’accueil qu’on a eu»,
dit Alain Éveillé, directeur de production,
« puis la multiplicité des décors et l’accessibilité des sites de haute altitude. Ici, on a aussi toutes les infrastructures nécessaires hors tournage ».
L’équipe de tournage est logée à Briançon pendant le tournage, qui dure environ trois mois par an.

Parmi les acteurs, certains rêvent de tourner l’hiver. Mais pour l’équipe de production les contraintes seraient trop importantes. A l’heure actuelle, ils doivent déjà tenir compte des aléas de la météo montagnarde. Il leur est arrivé de tourner une séquence et de se retrouver le lendemain dans 20 cm de neige. Ce serait facile à intégrer dans l’histoire, vous vous dites peut-être. Mais les scènes sont rarement tournées dans l’ordre. En réalité, la fin est souvent tournée avant le début. Alors, ils sont obligés de bricoler en post production, en faisant de la fausse neige en effet numérique.

Samuel Le Bihan, who plays Alex Hugo, loves these moments.

With snow

“Everything becomes calmer and more peaceful. The day after a big fall, it’s like everything has stopped, everything is frozen, it’s smooth, it’s clean and really beautiful..

He has always been drawn to places where nature is very strong, where the constraints of the landscape and the weather place the men and actors in a state of added difficulty that makes the story stronger. For him, living with the weather is part of this adventure.

Lionel Astier, who plays his police colleague Angelo,

aime lui aussi le côté un peu lunatique du temps ici, où en un quart d’heure on peut passer de la canicule à des orages qui font trembler les maisons, où le vent devient glacial quand le soleil s’en va.

For Lionel Astier, the series has a Western feel.

“The landscape has the leading role, the characters have to be set in these great, grandiose spaces”..

When he sees the audience, they talk to him primarily about the landscape. Episodes where the mountains are neglected are less successful.

sur les tracesd’alex hugo

Les paysages de la série n’attirent pas que les fans. Laurent Guillaume et son équipe de journalistes sont venus tourner dans la vallée de la Clarée “Sur les traces d’Alex Hugo” comme thématique pour leur émission Chroniques d’en haut diffusée sur France 3 Alpes.

The landscape is the real protagonist

According to Samuel Le Bihan,

« cette série montre qu’on peut vivre des aventures proches du western, la mythologie américaine, dans un département français. Elle rappelle qu’en France, nous avons de vraies terres d’aventure où on peut se perdre – dans la forêt ou dans la montagne – où les hommes peuvent vivre la solitude et des moments extrêmes dans le rapport aux éléments. C’est la force de ce territoire. Le western c’est ça, l’homme face à l’immensité des paysages grandioses. On ne pourrait pas faire ça ailleurs. C’est un des succès de la série. Le personnage principal, c’est la montagne. Les gens allument la télé pour regarder un moment d’aventure dans cette montagne qu’on connaît peu et qu’on a envie d’explorer plus. »

Actors’ favourite locations in the Hautes Vallées

As they returned to these mountainous lands, each of them found their own favorite places to spend their free time. Certain filming locations have left their mark.

Samuel Le Bihan’s favorite spot is the upper Clarée valley.

“It’s really the place where I love to walk, it’s beautiful, it’s relaxing. There’s something extremely serene about this river, even in its more tortuous stretches like the magnificent Fontcouverte Falls. It’s wild and powerful, and at the same time extremely soothing, with these houses and people living there in harmony with nature. The path that follows the river all the way is just sublime. When I can, I go there, really on a completely poetic level, to learn my texts and work on my character by walking down the river. For me, it’s really a time to recharge my batteries, almost like a meditation.

His favorite filming location is the cirque below the Col d’Ourdeïs.

“Before the Col d’Izoard, we turn right on a tiny track to arrive in a cirque surrounded by mountains, without a single house – it’s sublimely beautiful! You’re thrown into a completely wild universe. At first it’s hidden. When you arrive, it’s vast and magnificent, a real western setting.

Lionel Astier, cévenol d’origine, avoue que la montagne n’est pas trop son truc mais il aime quand même bien la haute Clarée. « On était au-dessus de Névache  il n’y a pas très longtemps [en juin]. On avait en fond les montagnes enneigées, en premier plan les fleurs et les ruisseaux qui étaient puissants encore. C’était beau !»

“I have fond memories of the Girose glacier, firstly because it was a bit dangerous. We were on the glacier, and even though we were roped up, if you fell, well… It was nerve-wracking, and then it was grandiose all the same. What’s more, we had to play on our emotions, because my character thinks that something bad has happened to Alex Hugo, and so his friend, who is not a sportsman, doesn’t hesitate to go up with a team of guides to look for him. It was a great, impressive moment!”

Meeting the mountain

Samuel Le Bihan aka Alex Hugo learns his lines by walking along the Clarée, and integrates his role by doing as many mountain activities as possible.

Before Alex Hugo didn’t know the mountains in summer. Like everyone else, he skied in winter.

“But summer is something else. It’s the real relationship with the mountains. We hike, bike, climb, canoe – real mountain activities that require involvement. I immerse myself in this environment so that the character is credible in his role as mountain lover. I do activities that correspond to the character, to enrich him and make him right. I really had this feeling of having walls around me, because my element is the sea and we have an infinite horizon. I had to tame them, create memories and emotional moments about this place. I walked, hiked and climbed as much as I could until, at some point, the pleasure came”.

Alex Hugo

The activities he does most vary, often with the needs of the Alex Hugo series. Right now, he’s concentrating on climbing. Last year, it was cycling, and there was also the canoe-kayak period, because he had an episode on the subject. Cycling is more of a friendly challenge, because in the team there are a few cyclists who do the Tour de France passes.

“I’ve cycled the Galibier and the Izoard. You wonder if you’re going to make it, and it’s so much fun when you do”.

As these experiences unfolded, the mountains became a privileged and much-appreciated rendezvous for him.

“Every summer, I know I’ll be back in the mountains. Paris is a pretty stressful city where it’s hard to find a bit of nature. But I have this appointment with the great outdoors, which comes at a time when you want to get away from Paris. When we come back after the August break, in September-October, we can see the autumn colors coming in, the larch trees turning orange, the colors are sublime! Sometimes, with a bit of luck, we even manage to get a bit of snow, which allows us to get some magnificent images.”

And where’s Lusagne?

Initially, there was just the police station, housed in the old Cervières school. After a while, they decided that there had to be a village around it. In the final episodes, the streets of Lusagne were filmed in Cervières, and the local bar was set up in the Hôtel d’Izoard.

The places around Lusagne can be found all over the neighboring valleys, and are a mixture of the prettiest spots. The Fonts de Cervières valley, the Col d’Izoard and the upper Clarée valley have made numerous appearances. This summer, the team also returned to the Girose glacier.

And Alex Hugo’s house? For Samuel Le Bihan, “it’s never in the same place, because Alex moves around a lot. What’s interesting is when he’s in the mountains. What connects him to civilization is the police station. If he could, he’s someone who’d leave civilization to be in the mountains.

With each new episode, we get into the game of trying to recognize the locations. This September, you can watch the episodes that were filmed last summer. Who can pinpoint the locations?