His defeat was a surprise. Chantal, who had won the pole competition Koh-Lanta Johor, broadcast in 2015 on TF1, had chosen to face Marc during the final vote. On paper, this seemed like the best option as the 40-year-old seemed unpopular. But during the count, Chantal only obtained two votes in her favor. “I was a plague victim,” she recalls. If she participated, three years later, in the Heroes fight, Chantal remains a special case in the cast of Koh Lanta. Candidate a little in spite of herself – her mother had registered her without her knowing – she confides little knowledge of the show. And for good reason: she never followed her.
What has “Koh-Lanta” changed for you?
I discovered Koh Lanta like a little girl discovers a game. I lived in Italy, so I didn’t watch the show when it was on TV. It happened to me to see two or three episodes when I returned on vacation in France to my mother. She was addicted to Koh Lanta, moreover, it was she who sent my application behind my back. So I discovered everything by participating. I was lucky as a beginner, as they say, it carried me far.
What did this teach you about yourself?
I know I am a stubborn person. So I knew I wasn’t going to let go unless I was injured or eliminated by my co-workers. It just confirmed to me that I was made for adventure and that I always have been. My parents made us travel a lot when we were kids because my father was in the military. He’s from Madagascar, when we went to the country, to the bush, we didn’t have drinking water, all those things, so for us it was always adventure. And for me, Koh Lanta was a way of living an all-expenses-paid adventure (laughs).
What is the question that people who recognize you in the street ask you most often on “Koh-Lanta”?
I am already amazed that there are so many people who recognize me, especially when I wear the mask. I wonder how they manage to register faces like that. They always ask me the same questions: Is it true that we do not wash? Doesn’t production provide us with food? Do we really sleep outside? They think it’s a sham and that we are being helped by the production. I tell them that there are some who lose 20 kilos, that I have lost 10. I don’t think that if we had really had to eat that would have happened.
What is the question that you are never asked and that you would have liked to answer?
I have the impression that they have all been asked of me. I was even asked if we had any adventures on Koh Lanta. I said you really have to be hungry for that because you don’t wash, you really have to want to. The question I would have liked to have been asked is: Would I like to participate a third time?
And your answer?
The problem is age. In the adventure, I would always manage to find food and all that follows but, for the performances, it would be difficult because there are sacred athletes. Already during my second participation I was a little invisible… I had learned that my mother had cancer, so it affected my morale. I could have been asked the question of if I was disappointed with the result. I would have said I deserved what happened to me. I was not efficient, not 100% in the game and, between us, we spot him right away, like animals that spot the weakest. Indeed, my head was elsewhere because of my mother’s illness. She was all alone. It was bothering me not to hear from me.
What is your strongest memory?
(She thinks for a long time) There are a lot of them. Maybe the last night, with Marc on the little island. We both cried, it wasn’t filmed. We were relieved on one side, tired on the other. The adventure stopped, there were plenty of things that we wouldn’t relive even if we did a second or third, each experience is unique. It really marked me. That we cut the bridges completely after the game, it also marked me. We had good relations on the island and afterwards, it was as if we had never seen each other, never known each other. It saddened me, but hey, things go by.
Did you keep in touch with the candidates of your first season?
There is the group of friends on Facebook, reserved for candidates, so I have news like that. With the adventurers of my season, if it is not me who contacts the others, they do not contact me. I was a plague sufferer. They didn’t appreciate my firing Jeff. They made me pay for it. I am seen as the old witch, the shrew, the wicked. The only exception is Babeth, who came to see me.
Do you keep watching the new seasons of “Koh-Lanta”?
No. I had never looked before, I don’t look, I haven’t even looked at mine. I know what we experience on the island, I know what editing is and I’m a little disappointed sometimes because it doesn’t show what we would like to see. I like to keep my memories.
Next Monday: Maud, winner of Koh-Lanta, the war of the chiefs in 2019.