August 2014

Hello everyone,

Unicorns at dusk, kisses… and groupers

Although in our deserted lagoon we do not listen to the radio, neither can we surf the Internet, several of you have told us by email about the death of very popular French singer Hervé Cristiani; those who have read my autobiography "Au bout de mes rêves" know the great importance that Hervé’s words have taken for us. Of course I had, as a whole generation of the 80s, loved his huge hit song “Il est libre Max” (He’s free, Max) and maybe even more "Radio Bonheur" a song, he had published in 1983. I invite you to listen to both of them, and you will understand the importance of his words. But it was my meeting with Hervé in 2002, when he agreed to sing his hit with me at famous Paris club Le Petit Journal Montparnasse (the recording, published at the time in DVD is now part of our archive. It was a great emotion to watch him and listen to the moment he compared me to his song’s character, Max), it was that meeting that, through a simple sentence, somehow changed our lives.

Hervé went “riding unicorns at nightfall” as he sung in hit ; as far as we are concerned “in the crab basket”, we continue to try not to pretend we’re lobsters” ; as far as sharks are concerned, there is no shortage of them these days in Tetamanu pass at the south end of Fakarava atoll: the great photographer and biologist Laurent Ballesta and his team have settled there for nearly a month to film the breeding of groupers who come by the millions to spawn at the time of the full moon; just before they dive, Laurent and his team were kind enough to pay us a visit aboard Banana Split.

And then we spent three more weeks in our nearby secret lagoon, and, except for the brief visit of what is probably the largest sailing catamaran in the world, Douce France, life has remained as we like it . Francette is off again for Paris these days with the DVD and Blu-Ray of the new film about Canada, as well as the last pages of the book on 40 of our best stops; I'll haul out Banana split to repaint it. After? I'll tell you next month

In the meantime, I wish you ... a lot of love and bisous, and a month of August full of gusto.
Antoine