They too experienced their first Vendée Globe: "I discovered I was hooked"

It all started during yet another sleepless night for Agnès Valet, 72. The retired accountant, who now lives in Reims, was reading the news on her tablet when she accidentally opened an article about Louis Duc, skipper of Fives Group – Lantana Environnement. 
"I was about to close it when I read the first sentence, which talked about dreams and travel. It surprised me, so I continued reading. I liked it, I thought this guy was great, he reminded me of my son and I wanted to dig deeper..." 
Agnès Valet was caught, hook, line and sinker, Since November 10, she has "simply discovered that she is addicted". Consulting the tracking has become "a reflex", she who "knew the Vendée Globe by reputation but doesn't usually follow the sport at all, because the competition side bores me".  

So what did she like about this non-stop, unassisted round-the-world race? 

"All these very different characters, who all come looking for something and tell us a little about themselves in passing, it gave me a real breath of fresh air," she sums up.

"I feel like a shepherd watching over her sheep"

So little by little, the Vendée Globe came into her daily life, and accompanied her day and night. "At 3 o'clock in the morning, I go to see if they have made any progress, I felet like a shepherd watching over his sheep... We become attached to them by sharing nights with them!", laughs the retiree, whose relationship with the ocean was until then "purely platonic, barely two or three weeks of vacation at the seaside in my entire life. But I believe that the ocean, ultimately, is something that lives in our collective imagination".

Superheroes 

Axel, 5, lives not far from the sea, in Plouhinec (Morbihan). But although he regularly sees IMOCAs in the nearby port of Lorient, it was through the Panini Vendée Globe album that his passion began. In the schoolyard, the card craze took hold of his group of friends, and contributed to his new growing passion for the Vendée Globe skippers. His favourite? "They're all a bit like superheroes, but there's one who's even stronger": Sam Davies, the Initiatives-Cœur sailor, to whom he has sent several letters and drawings, and hopes that she will answer him one day. "I think she's so great, her boat is beautiful, and she saves children who have heart disease, so we're lucky," With work colleagues at a service company in Paris Antoine R followed the race for the first time, competing on Virtual Regatta after following the last race during the global pandemic, "I spoke about it quite conventionally at the coffee machine and I realized that none of my colleagues were following the race, and I told myself that it was my little challenge to get them into it"  A screen dedicated to display the tracking,  a few videos during the lunch break, and the magic of the Vendée Globe did the rest... “Every morning, the conversation now begins with a weather report, and an assessment of the different virtual options taken by the boats. "It's become an obsession! Who is in the Doldrums? Who is going to try a bold option?" jokes Romain, 32, "passionate about sports" but who had never followed ocean racing. "I admit that I discovered a whole crazy universe, with great champions who perform over the long term, it's really impressive. Seeing Charlie Dalin so calm, with this crazy psychological war, is completely amazing,” says the engineer.

A family race to talk about “respect for nature”

For the Michauds, the race was also experienced for the first time as a crew. It was through the youngest of the family, Louise, that this family from Grenoble (Isère) “launched their family Vendée Globe”. With her class following the adventure, the youngest started talking about “sea spray and carbon” at the table, which piqued the curiosity of the other two children in the family… The parents were forced to embark so as not to stay at the quayside! “We made our own little family challenge”, confides Laure, 42 years old. “Everyone chose a skipper, Louise took Violette (Dorange, editor’s note) of course, and we had fun following each of her route with a magnetic map on the fridge.” They are passionate about the mountains, but especially about travel, and took the opportunity to refine “some notions of geography, but also of the environment and respect for nature. Honestly, with children, it's great to follow, because we can talk about competition as well as solidarity, perseverance, courage", enthuses Philippe, a mechanic in a car garage, far from the pontoons of Les Sables d'Olonne…