“We met through our mothers’ wombs. You can’t do better than that.”
– Jean-François
Born at the same time… almost
Aurore and I like to say that we’ve known each other since before we were born. In the late 1960s and 1970s, my uncle and aunt owned L’Escale, a Michelin-starred restaurant on Agay beach, famous for serving the best bouillabaisse in the area. It was a hotspot for the celebrities of the time. Aznavour, Johnny Hallyday, Sheila, Ringo… They would travel the road between Cannes and Saint-Tropez or arrive by boat in the bay. Jean and Jacqueline Laroche were loyal customers. They came so often that our families became friends. Then our mothers became pregnant at the same time. Aurore and I played together on the sands of Agay before we could even walk. Later on, my mother also became the nanny for one of Aurore’s brothers.
We lost touch when Aurore went to study in Switzerland, but we naturally crossed paths again, as often happens with childhood friendships. When she took over the management of the campsite, I was already playing accordion at evening events simply for pleasure, with no professional connection yet. Little by little, she asked me to take charge of the entertainment programme. That was more than twenty-five years ago.
Entertainment, always
I’ve always worked in entertainment. Even as a young student, I was an activity leader in holiday camps. I was also a tour guide. I performed in theatre and music as well. I looked for a profession that would allow me to combine a stable job with my passion for performing. That’s partly why I became a teacher. A steady income on one side, passion on the other. Several times, people wanted to keep me on full-time in entertainment. In the end, I stayed in teaching. But entertainment never left my life.
It also led me into event creation. I regularly work with the City of Saint-Raphaël on events such as the Sports Awards, the Flower Parade, the Jazz Festival, beauty pageants, and more.
The patio rock
When I started at Esterel Caravaning, there was nothing. No stage – just a tubular frame with a wooden platform and a few teenage bedroom lamps painted red and green. I told Aurore: “This can’t work. We need a real entertainment structure.” She was fantastic and immediately replied: “Go for it.”
For years, every evening my team would set up the stage, sound system and lighting, then dismantle everything at closing time. We worked in the space between the grocery store and the office, which served as makeshift dressing rooms. The reason for all this hassle was a rock. Mr. Laroche’s rock sat right in the middle of the patio, taking up all the available space. Once it was removed, the area opened up. But we still had to fight to transform that large planter into a terrace dedicated to the bar. “It would make a great stage, though.” I think I repeated that sentence to Véro every day of the season!
It took the arrival of a giant screen for the 2018 World Cup for the patio to finally get a real stage. Today, the structure is twelve metres wide and five metres deep. And since last year, proper wooden dressing rooms have welcomed performers, complete with mirrors and a small refrigerator – just as artists always request.
Innovating, again and again
Inventing something entirely new today is difficult. But innovating – that is always possible. That’s what has driven Aurore and me from the very beginning. It’s the soul of the campsite, its very essence, since 1976.
Mr. Laroche didn’t simply want to create a campsite. He wanted to offer something new to his guests. He and Jacqueline were complete outsiders to the industry. Perhaps that’s why they came up with ideas no one else had thought of. I love talking to Jacqueline about those early days. She’s a bit like a second mother to me. I still struggle to picture her wearing rubber boots, carrying stones and moving entire rock formations. It’s incredible!
A taste for challenge
When I look at photos from fifty years ago, the landscape seems almost lunar: nothing but rock, not a single tree. Today, families sometimes complain about having too much sun on their pitch. Back then, that was all there was – sunshine over completely bare hills. It was a bold bet on the future. And that same taste for risk, challenge, and seemingly impossible projects is something I see in Aurore. She inherited that energy. She has that same drive for excellence and innovation. And naturally, she passes it on to me whenever she wants to go further, do more. Her father would be so proud of her. So incredibly proud.
Dressed in light
It’s this constant search for new ideas that drives Aurore and me every day. Beyond work, there’s a friendship and connection that has united us for more than fifty years. Here’s one story. One evening last December, I was looking at the illuminated decorations in the port of Saint-Raphaël and thought how beautiful it would be to dress the palm trees in light for Esterel Caravaning’s 50th anniversary. My phone rang. It was Aurore. “I’ve got an idea for the decorations.” I stopped her before she could say another word. We had had exactly the same idea, at exactly the same moment, just a few kilometres apart.
Between us: Aurore’s words
“He is family”
Jean-François holds a very special place in my life. We’ve known each other for more than fifty years; only a few months separate us in age. He is the brother I grew up with. Always present. I can knock on his door at any hour of the day or night. He has always been there for me, just as I have always been there for him.
We share moments of intense laughter. Those times when he suddenly reenacts an entire theatre scene in the middle of a crowded restaurant, and everyone stops talking, convinced it’s actually happening.
For my mother’s 70th birthday, I organised a surprise party in Normandy, in a manor house near my grandmother’s home. I told him: “You have to come. You’ll surprise her, and you’ll play the accordion.” He came with his accordion. My mother, who knew nothing about it, walked into a room decorated with white flowers, and there was Jean-François on stage. He hosted the entire evening, exactly as only he knows how.
There have also been more difficult moments. When his mother passed away, I was there to cry with him. And I know that when my own mother leaves us, he will be there beside me. I am the godmother of his daughter. Since his mother passed away, there hasn’t been a single Christmas that I’ve spent without him.
Our families have been connected for nearly seventy years: we weren’t even born yet, and our stories were already being written. I love him for his qualities – and especially for his flaws, because goodness knows he has plenty of them! He is part of my family. He is my blood, my smile, my joys. He has made me laugh harder and more often than anyone else. He’s a clown, with an incredible sense of joy and warmth. We come from the same South, where people wear their hearts on their sleeves.
– Aurore
