While a stay at the Club is a family decision

Club Méditerranée of Marrakech. President Giscard d'Estaing, white trousers, blue shirt, inaugurates the Mini-club, a toy of Mozarabic style which will host nice members children. At the microphone, the speaker speaks in a French subjected to the Moroccan Minister of tourism. The President, known Henri, sharing with his illustrious father a chuintante diction, elegant échassière, a gesture of English colonel. It would be expected to Jockey Club It is found in the Club Med. Sporty accompanies in Henri Giscard d'Estaing, said HGE, a firm and temperate way of saying: "my only extravagance, it is the taste of freedom." Around him, the membership of the teams is striking. We feel a pattern involved, concentrated, liked. It is true that this child of the street of Bénouville, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, became a cacique of tropical leisure. Henri, as everyone calls him here, never hesitates to jump on the track to run the "Crazy sign" no, the ritual dance of the Club, the rite of initiation into the tribe. Front gear and red balloons of the Miniclub, open to children from neighbouring schools, he commented: "At the Club, we are opposite City Hotel, which depends on money from the companies." While a stay at the Club is a family decision. "But a life, a family decision, or the conquest of freedom"

As a child of a former President of the Republic, it is France a kind of employment were occupied with a variety of profiles of the characters such as Philippe de Gaulle and Alain Pompidou, Mazarine Pingeot or Claude Chirac. HGE is a caste of his gifts, reserved on its assets, more work and measurement. Former boarder at Rueil-Malmaison, HGE lives his 18 year coincide with the arrival of his father in the Elysee Palace. The young man attended Sciences po, where a rumour he lent a flirtation with Caroline of Monaco. Can imagine quite well by crown prince who sheds his strangles. With friends of the young giscardiens, Dominique Bussereau or Jean-Pierre Raffarin, he sold T-shirts "Giscard in the bar" imitating the Coluche sketch on the schmilblick. At the Elysee Palace, HGE parking lot his Mobylette in the Court. At this time, Jacques Mesrine threatened to remove it. As at the time of Louis XIII, it reinforced the guard.

In 1979, "riton" was the youngest Councillor General of France, elected Marchenoir Township, in the Loir-et-Cher. On the one hand, he could meet with his father John Paul II, President Anwar Sadat, or Juan Carlos of Spain. On the other, he presided over the joint company of the Lake of Loire, managing a nautical base and a campground near Blois. A miniature of Club Med before the time The paternal ambition could rub off on his debut. As HGE the note itself, "it is difficult to grow in the shade of a large oak tree." By creating his own journal in 1980, HGE unwisely walked on the land of Pierre Archambault, founder of the new Republic and local cacique. At the age of 26, he tried to delight the Mayor of Blois to Pierre Sudreau. Failed. Toughest times coming. When Valéry Giscard d'Estaing left the Elysee on foot under lazzis, May 21, 1981, his son waiting for him in the car. At this time, the young General Counsel worked as a consultant part-time, paid 5,000 francs per month, for the Cofremca, a societal trend analysis Corporation. The father was invited to dinner in French that are said to average, the son will study their feeding behaviours.

This no doubt is that jurisdiction on things to drink and chewable who called HGE in the eyes of Antoine Riboud, then CEO of BSN. "The policy" This is not serious, we will put it in ", would have dropped the charismatic boss." Of the latter, HGE said with gratitude: "It was a way of looking at things differently, still, shedding light on the decision by the intelligence of the doubt." A real lesson. "Director of the development of the group, patron of the subsidiary of BSN in Britain, then General Director of Evian Badoit, prior to be placed at the head of the Department of mineral waters, this young giscardien will finally have to seek a different fate." At the time of succession, is Frank Riboud who takes over the channel.

It is said that Michel David-Weill would have approached HGE for a job at Lazard. But this is Alain Minc, then Council of Philippe Bourguignon, who recommends the latter. In 1997, this is HGE in charge of the development, supervisor of villages, their renovation work. Club Med, is a time hinge. Born of the solidarist spirit of the post-war period, between the scout camp and cosmopolitan hedonism, the club founded by Gérard Blitz and then by the charismatic Gilbert Trigano evokes, as well as noted Jean-Paul Aron in the modern, "a"

sociability which combines a timed programming, according to the contemporary obsessive compulsive existence, a festive camaraderie; the weakening of the already rusty barriers between classes; change of scenery in a group in land subject to peaceful covetous "." In 1992, the time of "golden" is already passed by, with its charms and its shortcomings; jovial indoctrination, villages-ghettos, isolated from the surrounding poverty, required familiarity, freedom of morals. But another time point. In 1993, is the first year of failure since 1945 in the growth of the tourism market. Attacks, tsunami, SARS, cyclones, dream land threaten to become sad tropics. Soon, it will be the holidays on the Internet and low cost packages which will attack the sociability of the old club. As the desire for vacationers, it binds to more individualistic and less gregarious options.

The strategy chosen by Philippe Bourguignon is a diversification all-out: clothing, sports, cafés-théâtres (Club Med World), creation of Oyyo villages for young budgets - 2,000 francs week with pizzas, fresh pasta and techno music. A failure. Time of HGE has sounded. Director-General after September 11, 2001, he was appointed President in December 2002. A popular leisure club, led by the surgeon of a patrician lineage This is the new equation. The weight of the shareholders would have been his part, the Agnelli family playing his role behind the scenes. It is true that, with regard to Club Med, the Covenants of shareholders, the eviction of the Trigano to the arrival of Accor, now back to 6 of the capital, passing by the taunts of Gérard Augustin Normand with Richelieu finance, could feed the intrigues of several financial thrillers.

Freed of the tutelary figures, following HGE has become the first nice organizers. He commented: "Since politics has become an art of management, even managing a business, it is less thankless." In public life, that move the lines is often penalized. In the enterprise, it is rather rewarded. "Under his aegis, the refocusing of Club Med goes through an Upselling." The Auvergnat hunts endemic loss, the villages to unpaid maintenance, colossal expense. In Cuba, discussed negotiating with Castroite hierarchs Varadero club closure: remembering that his father has left in the international arenas désoblige not. For this "service and dream society", as it defines the HGE chooses the multicultural high.

Emphasis is placed on the 3-4 tridents villages. The home of the children, more than matraquées suggested activities, interaction with the host countries, is redesigned. "The crisis, says HGE, shows a desire for quality tourism but with prices reduced to large luxury hotel." Among the ongoing projects, a village in China, another in Sinai, another still in Buzios, Brazil site to Brigitte Bardot and Carla Bruni-Sarkozy. Travel less, ask, is this another advanced liberal company Freely defined by the employees of the Club Med as "his father with hair", HGE touch the GO but vouvoie parents. On the occasion, it may become the high priest of a policy of sun worshippers sect, as villages have seen Alain Juppé and Dominique Strauss-Kahn, François Hollande and Dominique de Villepin, Laurent Fabius or Nicolas Sarkozy.

Kaiser of the open-sided classrooms, HGE is also done as head of the family. Each year, the tribe is found in Christmas in Auvergne and in the Loir-et-Cher. On 2 February, anniversary date of the former President, it is of use to see in troop a boulevard play, even if it has been a more elegiac exception for Madison road. HGE dines little city, remaining mostly amateur gardens, board sailing and hunting. The pruning shears, glide and the rifle, assets which refine the flexibility of this former reserve officer. Him, his eminent father said: "Henri is someone who has everything that I can have the qualities and who is not my defects," what is considers that demonstrate lucidity.

Elected President of the Republic at the age of 48, VGE wanted to federate two French on three. At 47 years, HGE became the President of a Republic exploded, bathing, a Wonderland of spas and palm trees where the illusion of nature is the result of a very cooperative arrangement. Seen sometimes grilling a cigarette the Canal adjacent to the headquarters of the Club, in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, where he often trades its Renault space for a subway ticket. This fan of breakfast sandwich-yoghurt bio-juice of orange may contemplate before him the blue line of the fates from. HGE will have escaped which threatens to ruin any heir: the risk of the comfortable endormissements capped born children.