Appreciated by Koh Lanta viewers, Bastien has a brilliant career in the cursed totem season. The finalist answered our questions before the broadcast of the final episode of Koh Lanta 2022.
Bastien is undoubtedly one of the most outstanding adventurers of this Koh Lanta season, the cursed totem. Often impressive during the events, very active on the camp but also relatively unobtrusive in terms of strategies, the rope access technician was very supported by viewers throughout the season. Ex-Yellow, however, he had to face a former red team in numerical superiority but was ultimately in little danger thanks to happy affinities and victories in immunity games. Drafted for orientation against Amber, he joined the four finalists of Koh Lanta 2022 and participated in the pole test under the influence of a curse. Bastien granted us an interview before the broadcast of the final. He looks back on his adventure and what he plans to do after the end of the broadcast.
Why did you choose to participate in the show?
It’s a good question because basically I didn’t really choose, it was my ex-girlfriend who, during our three years together, encouraged me to participate. She told me that I would be very good, etc. During confinement, I gave in and responded to the casting. I sent a letter and, one thing leading to another, it made me want to participate.
What was the hardest part for you in the adventure?
One difficulty I was not aware of was the weather! In my childhood memories, when I looked at Koh Lanta, it was the Sun and swimsuits. But no, in fact at night it is very cold. We had a lot of rain and humidity. It was probably not the hardest things, but the most surprising and therefore the most striking. We expected the lack of food and the fatigue but not the humidity at this point.
What is the memory you will keep the most?
It is above all the encounters made with different people from completely different backgrounds that I would never have met. It’s an incredible cocktail of people who have become friends now. There are also all these incredible trials that we have been able to face.
You are the last former Yellow to arrive here. How do you explain having come this far despite the numerical inferiority of the Yellows?
I have always wanted to believe in my sympathy capital. I went there without seeking votes and encouraging people not to vote against me. Finally, it’s a bit about my sympathy and the fact that I was very active in the camp: I always went fishing, I was always looking for food, building things and then I was pleasant. I guess it saved me because I was always told not to be too strong on the tests because it could harm me. And finally, no. The fact that I got closer to François because I went fishing with him every day. I also had Jean-Charles and Ambre in the Reds that I had worked with in the former Violets. Finally, I had a few friends from everywhere. It protected me.
Did you make a pact with them?
I tried not to be a strategist but it’s still a strategy game where you have to write names on each board and protect yourself. I didn’t really make a pact but, by affinity, with people like Jean-Charles or the Yellows or even François, with whom I made friends because we did a lot of things together… c It was a kind of underlying pact. We didn’t tell each other word for word but, without telling each other, we knew we weren’t going to get in the way.
Some candidates speak of you as the favorite to win the pole test despite the curse. What was your state of mind before taking part in the event?
I was combative and very happy to have had this fourth place which normally does not exist. It was just a bonus and it’s true that when I heard others tell me that I was the favourite, I took it positively, telling myself that it was going to scare them. I kept a cool head, I told myself that I was going to fight hard. Posts, balance, it’s still my thing. We will see what it gives !
Has this favorite status put particular pressure on your shoulders?
Above all, I was afraid of underperforming. To hear people tell me that I was strong in balance and that in the end I fell after climbing the pole. I ignored that. I said to myself “it’s the last straight line, we can’t let go mentally so let’s go.”
Did you make calculations in relation to your chances of winning in the final vote against the other candidates?
A little. We discussed it a bit in the camp, we try to see how it can happen. I was learning a bit about in-situ endgame strategies because I didn’t really know how it worked. I understood that if I was the last on the post, it was necessary to take a person who would have fewer votes than me. Yes, we obviously think about that sort of thing. The calculations are done quite quickly in the head so I thought about it but not for very long.
Assuming you win the €100,000, what would you like to do with it?
The €100,000 is something I’ve only thought about recently. I tell myself that if that ever happens, I would share it with my family and also keep part of it for myself, even if it is an amount that cannot change our lives. But I would like to share it with my family and my parents who have always given me a lot. And then keep part of it for me for future housing.
How did you experience the broadcast and the reactions of viewers?
I didn’t suffer from it at all, quite the contrary. Out of the thousands of messages I received, I may have had about ten that were meaner but still very soft. I have had only good feedback. When I watched the show, I was very satisfied to see that my character was well transcribed. I saw myself on TV. The viewers have seen it well and when they call out to me in the street, it is with great pleasure that I answer them.
Do you have any regrets in your adventure?
Point blank, I would say no because I still had a very good run by starting out into the unknown. Without any pretension, I would say that I have no regrets. I had moments of defeat on certain games where I could have done better. And on some others not. That’s what made it an incredible adventure.
Did Koh Lanta allow you to learn things about yourself?
It taught me physically that despite immense fatigue we manage to surpass ourselves. It taught me that deep down we always have a strength that allows us to surpass ourselves and overwork ourselves to achieve our goals. It’s quite striking.
How do you view your career in Koh Lanta?
Strangely, it’s an adventure in which I didn’t project myself at all despite my registration. Even when arriving in Koh Lanta, I said to myself “maybe I will be eliminated from the start, it is such a winding course to reach the end”. Finally, when I see where I arrived with my physique and the way in which it happened without any pressure, because I was afraid very few times of being eliminated, I am very happy with my career. I am very proud of my journey. Even if I didn’t know much about Koh Lanta and I never hid my strength in the events, it allowed me to go to the posts. However, everyone told me “be careful, they eliminate the strongest”. Maybe it was a stroke of luck this season. In another season, I might have been eliminated because of my sporting qualities, I don’t know.
There is a lot of respect between the candidates, as we saw during the orientation test where you all refused to cheat to qualify. How do you explain it?
I think the cast is everything. It is enough that there are a few people who are in this dynamic there to bring, perhaps, the whole group in this way of thinking. I like to believe that everyone is in this bonhomie and in this desire to respect others without stepping on each other, without there being any clashes. I had been warned “Bastien, you are going to fall into a basket of crabs. No one is your friend”. Finally, I realize that it was completely the opposite. We have greatly favored the sporting side and the merit of people. Except perhaps Louana who was eliminated perhaps because she was strong. It may have worked. But overall, we never said “he’s strong, I’m going to eliminate him.” That’s why we had a lot of respect for each other and why we didn’t do bad things.
Would you like to participate in Koh Lanta again if you were given the opportunity?
At the beginning, in the first days before Koh Lanta, I said to myself “I will disappear as quickly as I appear” and then I had a lot of fun doing this show. Afterwards, I let the post-Koh Lanta time pass to recover because I was very skinny and it was quite complicated and finally I said to myself that yes, if I am given the opportunity to do Koh again Lanta, I would go fight again and face these challenges with pleasure.
How did you manage after Koh Lanta, especially with your weight loss?
It was complicated because I even fell ill when I returned to France. So I lost another two or three kilos when I got home. I then went on a pretty drastic diet of steamed white meat. It was hard, especially when I saw photos of others eating each other through Whatsapp photos. I had to restrict myself for a week and then after you want to eat anything. I came back up to 80 kilos as a result of the game but I exercised a lot so I never felt fat. We gain a lot of weight and then we stabilize so everything is fine. It’s true that the brain wants to eat everything once the show is over.
With Jean-Charles and Colin, you have decided to raise funds for the Bertrand-Kamal foundation. How and why?
During the show, I wanted to go to Jean-Charles because I wanted to work with wood and his job interested me. When I arrived, Jean-Charles said to me “we have a few days ahead of us, maybe you could make a bench”. I started, Colin arrived. And when we finished, we said to ourselves “why not use this bench made of our three pairs of hands to bring money to an association?” We thought of the Bertrand Kamal Foundation because Jean-Charles’ mother died two months before the issue of a pancreatic operation. We wanted to take advantage of our notoriety at the moment and that of the show to revive this everyday fight for some.
What are your plans for the future?
I have planned a big trip. I had been planning this for a year now. I’m going to leave from the North Cape, the highest point in Norway, up to Athens, so not far from Anne-Sophie’s in Greece. We are going to do all this by bike with a friend. It’s 6,500 kilometers and the start is scheduled for July 14.