WHO AM I? Translator Sarah Viguier-Warth

She was born in the lush green English countryside, in Meriden, right in the heart of England. She grew up in London, amidst Carnaby Street, the Changing of the Guard and the old-fashioned milk delivery round. She spent her teenage years in the provincial, industrial and multicultural city of Coventry.

The love affair with the French language started when she was around 9, with summers in Belgium, to continue with a one-year stint in a boarding school at the Institut Marie Clotilde, Nice (complete with nuns and tutti quanti). Here Sarah discovered that not only did she not speak French, she didn’t understand it either. She could count to ten and conjugate the verb to be in the present form. One year later, Sarah was on the road to becoming bilingual and naturally focused on French studies back in England. After the University of Warwick, she was back in France…

Her first job introduced her to the “intoxicating pleasure” of mixing with French artists at Virgin Records (Public Relations Assistant): she sung on a record with Alain Souchon (amazing, no?) and witnessed Catherine Ringer breastfeeding on the office couch. But a pregnancy later, she changed direction for Europcar Holding Company where she was successively Training Assistant and Manager, Personnel Manager and Quality Programme Manager. While doing all these things, as one of the only English-speaking people in the company, she naturally spent a lot of time doing all sorts of translations. The idea grew…

Next, the GREAT ADVENTURE began. On 1st April 1994, Sarah launched her own translation company. She earned nothing the first year and not a lot the second, but thanks to the ancestor of social media (word-of-mouth), her reputation grew and the number of clients increased and her company became sustainable, as she’s been in the business for some 25 years… Following a recent move (3 years ago) to the Bordeaux region, she is over the moon with life in Gironde, the vineyards, the welcome, the lifestyle and the weather (although it does rain quite a bit in the area – a throwback to her roots perhaps!)