Coming straight from the valleys of the Mississippi, he had settled in the middle of the forest of Ermenonville (Oise) for more than three decades, always on horseback.
Mohamed, known as “Momo”, the great Indian chief of the Sea of Sand, is no more.
The death of the stuntman, announced this Thursday by the amusement park, sparked a wave of tributes, well beyond the department.
Visitors were quick to post old photos with Momo while sending their condolences.
In thirty-six years of presence at the Sea of Sand, the great Indian chief has touched several generations of spectators.
“I don’t have the words,” laments Arnaud, on social networks.
Momo was very kind and had crazy charisma.
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“He was so kind and approachable”
“A great man, always smiling, whom I saw doing stunts or taking photos when I was little, and twenty-five years later, my children have the same vision of this emblematic character, always smiling and so kind,” comments Mickaël on Facebook.
“He was so kind and accessible to answer the thousand and one questions after the shows, a passionate person who dazzled our young and old eyes as spectators who were so impressed by the shows,” recalls Élisabeth.
Trained by stuntman Georges Branche, Momo “had fifteen days to learn to ride a horse, I learned on the job,” he said.
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The death of the fifty-year-old shook park staff.
Managing director of the Oisien park for three years, Antoine Lacarrière salutes the memory of “a man of character with great charisma, generous, attentive and very friendly towards people”.
Momo arrived at the park in 1988, at the age of 22.
Some will invoke destiny, he preferred to justify his start of adventure by “chance”.
A welder by trade, he sees a classified ad.
La Mer de Sable is looking for a young, athletic man under 26 years old.
He checks all the boxes except one: he can't ride a horse.
Nevermind.
Trained by stuntman Georges Branche, Momo learns quickly.
“I had two weeks to learn to ride a horse, I learned on the job.
It was the old method, I looked at the others, I did the same, I fell, I got back up,” he explained last April in the columns of Le Parisien, in the margins of an article dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the park.
“He was the last stuntman of the Jean Richard generation”
He then learned aerobatics and gradually transformed into a true equine acrobat.
A passion that he then passed on by training a number of stuntmen.
Permanent at the Mer de Sable all year round, “it was he who managed the horses and the preparation of the costumes for the following season,” recall Bruno and Isabelle, two employees of the park who have worked for forty-five years between them. two on the site.
He was part of the gang that made the memory of the park and he was the last stuntman of the Jean Richard generation, the creator of the Sea of Sand.”
The great chef even lived on the site for a time with part of the team.
“We lived there, we ate together, we did everything together.
It was the little family,” he recalled last April.
The feathered stuntman then moved away from the park family to start his own.
After a six-year break starting in 2012, he put on his finery in 2018 to once again gallop his horse on the sand.
Also read 60 years later, we tell you about the beginnings of the Sea of Sand: “We really started with small means”
Of course, he could no longer perform all the stunts like at the time, but “he went down the dune with the four horsemen and he continued to shoot with arrows and a bow on his horse,” insists Antoine Lacarrière.
So, when it comes time to pay tribute to him, ideas jostle.
“We are thinking about honoring him in the park, without it becoming a sanctuary.
Because we don’t want it to be sad,” continues the general director.
After the announcement of his death, the flow of laudatory tributes did not stop.
Often with the same words: kind, authentic, accessible.
Former employees, spectators spanning several generations, day visitors... Everyone wanted to say a last word to Momo.
“On behalf of everyone, thank you Momo, rest in peace,” comments a user.
You are and will remain a legend.
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