Eric Vargiolu: "I have experienced with my fingertips what some of the greatest adventurers have experienced"

A pillar of the DPPI agency for fifty years, our driver of the day is the only photographer to have covered all editions of the Dakar. Before setting off on his 46th odyssey in the dunes, he opened his intimate road book to us. Adventure is adventure!

Published 26/01/2025 à 18:00

Jean-Michel Desnoues

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Eric Vargiolu: "I have experienced with my fingertips what some of the greatest adventurers have experienced"

© Bernard Asset

Hello Eric. Thank you for welcoming us to your Porsche Cayenne. Knowing you, we would have bet on a Land Rover…

I love V8s! I know, it's a rather iconoclastic point of view and quite frowned upon these days. That being said, you weren't far off the mark since I also have an old Land Rover Defender 90, which also has a V8 and which I leave in the Arcachon basin. Before, I had a Volkswagen Touareg TDi which was a good compromise. Once it reached 180 km on the clock, I looked for a new one, a petrol version because of the increasingly restrictive legislation on diesel. Not having found one with less than 000 km, I came across this Porsche Cayenne which I paid 150 euros for – the price of an electric car today – and which had 000 km. I'm happy to have a Porsche, but I would never have been able to afford a new one. For thirty years, I was a fan of the Nissan Patrol that I changed every three Dakars. Roll bar, bucket seats, six-point harness, etc., I must have done between 35 and 000 km of track with them, but back in Fontenay-sous-Bois (Val-de-Marne), it was not practical to go get bread.

These tracks are those of the “Dakar” that you have been crisscrossing for almost fifty years!

The Dakar is an experience very special. On a circuit, the photographer is more or less a paparazzi. He is not in the "game". On a track, however, the drivers see me and they realize that to come and take my photos, I also have to go to the coalface. Suddenly, it creates special bonds. I am not in the race, but I

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