Carpooling – Stéphane Guérin

Small disappointment when arriving at La Rochelle station: Stéphane Guérin is waiting for us in his white Audi station wagon. “I promised you originality with the Méhari, but there is no way to bring it out of hibernation”, he almost apologizes when shaking hands.

No problem, if you take me to a magnificent setting…

We're going to go to the Ile de Ré, and we're going to have lunch by the sea in one of the first restaurants where I worked, when I was 18. At the time, the bridge did not exist, you had to take the ferry. Needless to say, we stayed there all summer...

Are you originally from Rochelais?

I've lived there for 40 years, I'm 47, so I can say that I know it. But I was born in Le Mans, on the 24 Hours circuit!

On the circuit?

At Tertre Rouge! Well, in the Tertre Rouge clinic to be exact. My father was a mechanic and was always at Bugatti. So I was made to work in motorsport. But the family didn't stay there long, I was 7 years old when we arrived in La Rochelle.

And I have no intention of leaving; my daughter lives here, the living environment is pleasant… The only problem is when we travel a lot for work. The connections from La Rochelle airport are not that.

There are flights to London, we are going to recover a line to Paris, but in general, we have to go to Nantes-Atlantique, which will develop with the end of the Notre-Dame-Des-Landes project. The abandonment of which is, for me, by the way, a good decision.

Discover our entire Carpooling with Stéphane Guérin in issue n°2159 of AUTOhebdo, available now in digital version and on newsstands.