In 1962, Guitou Lapeyre takes over the domain’s horse-riding path. At the time, Gabriel Pellen is Méjanes’s steward. Many famous figures come to discover that place that everybody talks about.
Guitou guides the actor Jean Rochefort, the Olympic swimming champion Christine Caron, the players for the French rugby team – Benoit Doga, Christian Carrère, Jo Mazot – that came at the time report for the team’s newspaper.
Amongst his most memorable encounters, is Luis Mariano but also Hugues Aufray. He sympathized with the versatile artist that dedicated his song Stewball to him during his show in Canet en Roussillon.
Above all, there is Johnny Hallyday. Part of the movie D’où viens-tu Johnny ? is shot in Méjanes. Every night, at the end of the shooting, Guitou has drinks with the Rockstar on the Méjanes restaurant’s terrace. These two get along very well. Jonny’s friend and his beloved Sylvie Vartan buy for the singer’s 20th birthday, a horse named “Johnny” from Guitou. This Johnny will never go back to Paris. He will stay in Camargue, peaceful.
Apart from famous people, visitors from all over France come to stay at the domain for a week or longer. They are accommodated in pretty gardian huts.
In 1966, Paul Ricard asks Guitou to go on a promotional tour for the Domaine de Méjanes as part of the opening of the Ricard firm’s factories in Rennes and Dijon. Our favorite rider organise the chevauchée fantastique with nine other riders and gardians. Roger Faure, the son of Méjanes’s gamekeeper, Bernard, Didier Pradel (whose father is a mechanic in Méjanes), are present. There are also Jacques Amphoux and Christian Laureti ( the son of Paul Ricard designer).
All the transfers are done with trucks and horses.
Every day at noon, they do a halt to do a horse parade in the city center. They go back on the road to do a second parade in a new city in the evening.
This is how the Camargue and especially the Domaine de Méjanes invite themselves in Montauban, Cahors, Brive, Tulle, Périgueux, Angoulême, Rouillac, Lignières, La Rochelle, Nantes, Saint Nazaire, Angers, Fougères, Saint Malo, Dinan, Rennes, Laval, Le Mans, Tours, Poitiers, Limoges, Villefranche sur Saône, Roanne, Vichy and many more.
People are amazed and delighted to see the handsome gardians, horse riding on their white Camargue Horse in the city center. It was such an unforgettable experience filled with pride to represent the Provence and its traditions everywhere in France!
Guitou always insists on the fact that we are like family to him. A feeling shared by most men and women that have worked on the domain. A recognition that deeply moves Michèle Ricard.
To Paul Ricard, Guitou was, without a doubt, the most excellent guardian of cultures, traditions, and the tourism development of the Camargue. Especially Méjanes’s one.
