Its name makes you want to slide on a polished floor.
Alexandria Alexandra
,
That Year
,
As Usual
,
Magnolia Forever
... No need for a karaoke screen to remember the words to these great popular songs. What if we went from the parquet floor to the deck of a boat, just to enjoy a
Monday in the sun
? This is the invitation launched by Claude François Jr, known as “Coco”, the eldest son of “Cloclo”, who dedicates part of his activities to preserving the family heritage.
It is therefore a thematic and musical cruise about his father that he is organizing with the giant Costa Croisières. Soberly titled “Croisière Claude François”, this trip will take place from October 6 to 13 aboard a Costa ship. Fans don't worry: places are still available. The cruise will start in Marseille and head to Barcelona, Ibiza, Palermo, Rome and Savona.
On the program: a dancing evening with the Cloclo repertoire as a soundtrack; a karaoke conference dedicated to the artist led by host André Torrent, Clodettes captain Dani Borg, as well as Claude François Jr; and a “Cloclo Experience” concert, which will allow you to relive Claude François' last tour in 1978.
“We are currently looking to reserve additional surprises
,” confides Claude François Jr. to Le
Figaro
. The opportunity to return to the genesis of this project and the relationship he had with his father.
LE FIGARO. - Why did you create this cruise?
Claude François Jr. -
The cruise is a parenthesis. We cast off our moorings and our worries with them. Like in a show where the door closes and we find ourselves in a black box, we will be masters of the tempo. It will be an opportunity to meet the public - we expect between 500 and 600 people - and to create great memories. We are used to seeing the “ultras”
[the most loyal fans of Cloclo, Editor’s note]
, but less so the others. When we do this type of trip, we are carefree because everyone is on vacation. It’s an environment conducive to coming together around my father’s repertoire.
Concretely, how is the trip organized?
We are integrating an already existing cruise from Costa Croisières [the
Costa Toscana
, one of the last boats in the fleet, Editor's note] which we have chosen for its sunny destinations. We will also be on the boat with other cruise passengers. Initially, I wanted to give a conference. Then a friend said to me: “
Doesn’t that sound like a bit of a seminar?
», and we headed to a karaoke conference, where there will be anecdotes punctuated by songs that we will have the audience sing! Don't worry, I'm not going to push the song because that would be a disaster...
An immersive concert will also take place with Belgian artist Ludovic Tournay, who will wear a replica of my father's blue suit. The idea is to reproduce an identical concert from Claude François' last tour in 1978. There will be the same musical formation, with the same sequence of songs at the same tempo, the same staging of the time , etc. We're going to go on the disco ball!
Which profiles are you targeting?
We try to target people who want to spend a week around a repertoire, a certain sense of celebration, with a real interest in the artist. Reservations have been open for two months already. We are already at 67% reservation. This ranges from 47 years to 85 years: a bit like my father's repertoire which is transgenerational. We already have groups of friends forming. Also friends who come with their mother. It's profitable for now, but it was a gamble at first.
Is organizing a cruise a first?
With Costa Cruises, it's new. I did one with Club Med a long time ago. At the end of the week, I go scouting on the boat because I want to understand the mechanics and put myself in the place of the people who will come. The idea is to create an appointment. We would like to stay with 500 to 600 cruise passengers to develop a form of proximity and have time to meet them all during the week.
Do you have any travel memories with your father?
I especially have one in Finland, when I was 7 or 8 years old. At the time, my father was not known in that country. We were staying at his fiancée's parents' lakeside cabin. It's one of the rare moments of intimacy I have with my father. It was in these moments, far from France, that he let his guard down. After this trip, my father brought back a Finnish sauna to the Moulin! At school, I told it to myself in front of my friends, saying I saw Clodettes all naked in it...
Is there an emotional aspect to this cruise?
We leave in a festive atmosphere. But it's certain that I will find emotion in people, because they tell me about the impact of my father in their lives and how much they miss him. It's moving to see how he entered the hearts of these people, how he still is there; it speaks to a bygone era.
What relationship did you have with your father?
It was that of a busy father, unavailable, often under tension. But when he was with us and let his guard down, he could be a loving father.
Is this cruise a way of perpetuating his memory?
When I turned 50 a few years ago, I wondered about the meaning of life. I want to be in transmission. I also do it because he worked so hard and sacrificed a lot for his career. And as long as there is a resonance with the public, I will continue, because it is a source of pride. It is partly he who built my life today, who allows me to live, and this is the minimum that I owe him, by ensuring that his legacy is respected.
Practical information:
La Croisière Claude François
, from October 6 to 13, 2024. From €1,346 per person in a double cabin and €1,471 in a single cabin.