Behind his Formica counter, Dominique Hirigoyen was back at work. With a rotary phone to his left and a large merchant’s scale to his right, the septuagenarian was enjoying the new burst of activity. Three years after closing, his grocery-bar was now serving as the campaign headquarters for the local boy. Serge Blanco, 67, was running for mayor of Biarritz, southwestern France.
No one should ever leave Saint-Martin, the neighborhood at the entrance to the city. The legend of French rugby has devoted his whole life to it. “I started out playing football on that field across the street,” he said. “I was supposed to try out in Nantes. I was 14… I never went. I just couldn’t leave my mother.” Nor Biarritz. “Caracas” was always just a line on his birth certificate, the city where he was born to a Venezuelan police officer who died before Blanco turned two and his Basque mother, Odile Blanco.
Unwaveringly loyal to his local club, Biarritz Olympique, from 1975 to 1992, Blanco was never rewarded with a French championship title during his playing days. Rugby, however, provided the French national team fullback with a remarkable path to upward social mobility, especially with the help of Serge Kampf, founder of the company Capgemini. Thanks to this friend, admirer and mentor, the former Dassault factory worker went on to become a successful entrepreneur after his sports career, opening a thalassotherapy center in Hendaye and launching his own clothing brand. Each time, with his name as the brand.
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