Gérard is a true native of Nice, proud of his city and a lover of sports. Born in 1961 in Vieux-Nice, he lived there until he was eleven before moving to Saint-Roch. From his youth, he only retains good memories, those of a “top period” that he seems to miss.
The first neighborhood change was a real drama. “I had to make new friends, and at that age, we feel a bit uprooted,” he explains. Fortunately, there was La Bollène-Vésubie, where he spent his holidays until he was 18 with his group of friends; “it was the time for soccer, bocce ball, and first girlfriends.”
The problem was that he dropped out of school in the fifth grade because it wasn’t for him. He then started an apprenticeship to find a job. He became a printer and joined the company he still works for today twenty-three years ago. “I am a stable professional, and it’s true that there is always a good atmosphere and I am with friends, which explains my longevity in this print shop.”
This job does not make him forget his lifelong passion, sports. He played football until he was twenty years old and also practiced karate for thirteen years, reaching a second dan. He remains involved in combat sports with boxing, which he has been practicing for four years. A world that “surprised him with its good atmosphere and absence of thugs, allowing me to have fun and enjoy.”
He also doesn’t forget several weight training (cardio) sessions a week for twenty-eight years to stay healthy and comfortable in his skin.
He has passed on his love for physical activities to his son, Cédric, 20 years old, who participated in Pékin Express with him. With his wife Eliane, whom he met in ’83 and married three years later, they also have a daughter, Camille, eight years his junior. A close-knit family that gathers whenever they can, as Cédric lives in Nantes. Their relaxing times include playing cards, walking, and having a good laugh. But nothing beats the moments spent with his companion, which make Gérard, “calm, zen, and serene,” rare because “Camille won’t let go of us, so it’s getting more complicated.”
Responsible for the second-tier stands on match nights at Le Ray, he admits a taste for Antiquity and travels around the Mediterranean, from Greece to Egypt via Malta or the Maghreb. His trip to South America for Pékin Express was the furthest he had ever traveled.
He loves movies, especially thrillers, but seldom goes to theaters because “there are fewer and fewer good films.” His favorites are 300 and Gladiator because he appreciates lost causes, when there is no hope of winning but one dies a hero. He never admits defeat, as he proved during his journey in Brazil, greatly helped by the look in Sébastien Chabal’s eyes before France-New Zealand, on last October 6th, when he was at the hotel. “He transferred his desire, his rage to win. It was very important and I thought about it throughout the adventure. He gave me strength, it’s incredible, that crazy look,” he explains.
Today, he knows that Pékin Express has transformed his life. He would like to change his professional life to be more active. Cédric even sensed this change: “I discovered someone stressed, who took little pleasure because he wanted to progress. He was sensitive, but he kept his feelings to himself because he accepted that I play the father during the day, but in the evening, he remained so. He didn’t want to show when he was hurting or feeling blue.”
Gérard also states that now he gives to the homeless, and would pick someone up hitchhiking because he knows how tough it is, but he couldn’t let a stranger stay at his house. “It’s different. It’s too mentally difficult, but the journalists and cameramen from the show, if they come to Nice, will sleep at my house, not a hotel.”
His small fame is known in the neighborhood: “People ask me for photos like this father who told me his son was in the hospital. It moved me, and if I were Zidane, I think I’d use this fame to do things for others.” He isn’t Zizou, but remains simple. Cédric praises his father: “He’s young at heart despite his age, and I have more fun with him than with friends. He’s kind to others. He made me love soccer when I was eight, and that’s huge. He’s more a friend than a father. He has more qualities than faults, but these are still real. Grumpy like me, he’s especially vindictive and does everything not to forget and to get even.”
For now, Gérard has no vengeful spirit. He lives day by day but knows he will return “to South America this summer to revisit people who helped him. I know where to go.” Joined by his wife, Cédric, and his girlfriend, he plans to make the most of it. Meanwhile, the match against Olympique de Marseille on Sunday, February 10, looms. He already knows it’s going to be “hot” for him because everyone will ask one question: Did he win?
Although he currently responds “I don’t know,” the result will be known in the coming weeks and perhaps even tonight, on M6 at 8:50 PM.
