text:  The Amaury family first acquired the tour as part of a French media empire in the 1960s. Today it's headed by Marie Odile, who inherited from her late husband, and her children, Aurore and Jean Etienne. But despite being owners of what's verging on a public institution, they're often described as secretive and even reclusive. Maria David is possibly the only person to have interviewed all three of them.