This advertising is so expensive that we have been considering and looking at possibly sponsoring a competitor which can sometimes work out to be much better value than just online advertising, but this hasn't happened yet, but what we do in the winter and the summer is that we sponsor races and events around here. There are lakes where you can do surfing and there are competitions and contests on these lakes and so we sponsor these competitions, but it's hard, it’s very hard and this year the weather was not good for business because the bad weather came here late and so there was not much snow around when there is normally snow and so the people are not buying the equipment, then when the snow comes I think it's too late and I'm not going to buy some skis for this short period of time. The two periods of good business for us are Christmas time and afterwards for sales in February.
Christmas was very bad last year but the sales were pretty good but still it is hard but it is a growing business and we have stores and online presence which is good and 12 employees, one of the stores is in Grenoble with four people working there and another store further away, they are pretty big stores. Grenoble is a big beautiful town, a wealthy town, it does have a problem with pollution because the town is surrounded by high hills and mountains on all sides. It is a popular place to go skiing in there many resorts at this place. Most of my time, I mean 90% of my time is spent with the lottery business. We are very busy.
Are you the man that hands the cheques out?
Yes ha ha it's part of the business. You know a small part of the business, but it is a part I like, me personally I don't handle too many of the checques because in my company we have 30 people but the bigger ones yes I am doing this.
Are you the man that hands the cheques out?
Yes ha ha it's part of the business. You know a small part of the business, but it is a part I like, me personally I don't handle too many of the checques because in my company we have 30 people but the bigger ones yes I am doing this.
I think I do about 5 cheques a year and it's all good fun. In fact the biggest winner that we have had here is 62 million euros. I'm with my business, I've had some great opportunities to travel and go to other countries, for instance, this took me to England to visit Camelot the operators of the UK lottery to see how they run things. I've also been to see the Spanish and the Italian lotteries and before last year Portugal to meet the people there, its fun yes.
It's a family business, do you do scratch cards as well? Yes we do the scratch game, it is a big part of our business. |
Who was your biggest competitor riding in France?
My biggest competitor was firstly Charles Coutard, Thierry Michaud. I was a very young rider when Charles was French Champion. There are many different riding styles out there and many different little funny traits that riders can have, one friend gets really angry, start screaming and shouting at the bike or himself when every one does badly, another friend is known for crashing, he seems to hit everything so hard and crashes more often than most. No why was nothing like this. I was just very concentrated and very focused on the sport and what I was doing.
My biggest competitor was firstly Charles Coutard, Thierry Michaud. I was a very young rider when Charles was French Champion. There are many different riding styles out there and many different little funny traits that riders can have, one friend gets really angry, start screaming and shouting at the bike or himself when every one does badly, another friend is known for crashing, he seems to hit everything so hard and crashes more often than most. No why was nothing like this. I was just very concentrated and very focused on the sport and what I was doing.
Charles Coutard.
I know afterwards the French were very well known for that even in Scotland. When you go there, when you are young, you are told that the people before up in Scotland will be tough with you because you are French but in reality they love French people but they told me back then when I first started that when I go to Scotland if I stop for one moment they will give you a five because you are French and so you go there with all these thoughts in your mind when I am very young but in fact I find out that they like French people they're not like these old stories. Well I was told when I was first start riding, is just the old stereotypes from the walls we had in the past.
Do you have any old trials gear from back in the day?
I only have my helmet, all of this stuff was given away by me many many years ago. Even my parents have nothing at their house. I have recently got to know Emma Bristow and James Fry at the Scottish. I saw them as well but this time they were very very focused. They have another trial, the trial De legend, I saw them and I spent a weekend with them and they were very very pleasant people, they were very nice we had a lot of things in common between them and me and my wife such as diet and food.
Do you have any old trials gear from back in the day?
I only have my helmet, all of this stuff was given away by me many many years ago. Even my parents have nothing at their house. I have recently got to know Emma Bristow and James Fry at the Scottish. I saw them as well but this time they were very very focused. They have another trial, the trial De legend, I saw them and I spent a weekend with them and they were very very pleasant people, they were very nice we had a lot of things in common between them and me and my wife such as diet and food.
So from those early days in France when your father introduced you to motorcycles, look where it's taking you?
Yes, I couldn't have imagined it. It has shaped my life, a great deal of people remember everything about the old days of trial and people still talk about it and are interested in it and when I go to a race like the Ventoux there are a lot of people my age who are riding 30 years ago when they remember things. I don't remember you know they say to me to remember that trial when you had a flat tyre and I'll give you an inner tube, these people have incredible memories. |
Oh ...one last thing. Here are the results from the Archery competition.
You can see that I did humble "non World Champions" proud :)
You can see that I did humble "non World Champions" proud :)