Call from Pierre Leroy-Beaulieu, visit from Nicolas Sarkozy, costume of Papa Smurf… at the time of leaving his functions, Christian Bèzes, director of the Cap d'Agde Méditerranée tourist office, opens the trunk of memories

At 70, the director of the tourist office turns the page on a busy career. MIDI LIBRE – MICHEL DESNOS

The director of the OT as Papa Schtroumpf during the Ofnis race. COLLECTION DENESTEBE

With the Solex Cap during the Christmas holidays, with the late Jeannot Vila. COLLECTION DENESTEBE

The Ofni race, an annual challenge for the tourist office team. COLLECTION DENESTEBE

Christian Bèzes est l'un de ceux qui a participé à la création de Vinocap. COLLECTION DENESTEBE

Directeur de l’office de tourisme Cap d’Agde Méditerranée depuis 2001, il va quitter ses fonctions, à 70 ans, dans moins d’une semaine. Entre émotion et satisfaction.

If there were a popularity index for Agde personalities, you wouldn't need to be a genius to say that Christian Bèzes would tirelessly occupy the top spots in the rankings.

A gentle start

Modest, friendly, human, competent are the first adjectives that come to mind to describe the man who will leave his position as director of the Cap d'Agde Méditerranée tourist office on December 31. An important page in the resort's history, without slamming doors or tremolos in his voice. “Life is made up of chapters, one will close and we will open another. I am serene”, image the technician, reached by the age limit, but not by that of the skills, unanimously recognized. As proof, we have the proposal made to him by the president of the Hérault Méditerranée agglomeration, Sébastien Frey, to continue his mission in another form, at the rate of two days per week, in order to accompany his successor, whose identity will be made official during the first week of January, at the head of the structure.

A gentle end therefore, for the one who put down his suitcases at Cap d'Agde in 1988, professionally in any case. “I had known the station since my parents – his father was a military surgeon, his mother a resuscitation nurse, both had met in Indochina at the beginning of the 50s –had read an article about Cap d’Agde in Midi Libre in 1973. They were staying in Aveyron at the time, where my father was from, and had come to see for themselves. They must have liked it since my mother rented it every summer in the years that followed! “

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Pierre Leroy-Beaulieu’s call

So in 1988, Christian Bèzes was still secretary general of the town hall of La Côte-Saint-André, in the north of Isère, a town run by a former classmate from Sciences Po. “I wanted a change of scenery when I saw an advert for the position of secretary general of the town hall of Agde. I applied.” However, it turns out that the position is already filled. “Some time later, my phone rings at the office and I hear on the other end: “Leroy-Beaulieu, Mayor of Agde, speaking.” That's how it happened.” After the departure of Jean-Pierre Ivars, the tourist office is looking for its new administrative and financial director.

Christian Bèzes on his arrival at Cap d'Agde, in 1988. COLLECTION DENESTEBE

Christian Bèzes will be the one. “Claude Siegfried, the director at the time, wanted an assistant who knew local authorities and tourism.” The two men get along well. Siegfried and his dandy side, a connoisseur of the media and marketing world, initiator of the Jeudis chics du Cap d’Agde, relies on the skills of Christian Bèzes, who holds a doctorate from the Centre des hautes études touristique d’Aix-en-Provence. But the principle of reciprocity applies. “Claude Siegfried taught me a lot”, the latter testifies. “He was not only of a rare elegance, but he also showed me how to proceed. I am very proud to have succeeded him.”

The great challenge of the digitalization of the tourist office

It was then 2001 and the appointment of Christian Bèzes as head of the tourist office hinted at the beginning of new changes for the tourism industry. Digitalization was not the least of which the tourist office fully took the measure of it in the 2000s. “We got started at the right time” , believes the man who has also worked hard with the resort's professionals to ensure they do not fall behind in this sector. Communication, essential for the destination, has also had a facelift. Fewer paper brochures, trade fairs too, but innovative campaigns like in 2008, when the office won two first prizes at the Trophées de la communication.

The beginning of 2017 marked the creation of the Cap d’Agde Méditerranée intercommunal tourist office, a meeting of the offices of Agde, Pézenas, Vias, Portiragnes and Tourbes. Not the least of the challenges for Christian Bèzes, whose diplomacy and listening skills were not too much to bring the project to fruition.“It wasn't easy, but it helped to assert the brand, the destination and to renew the offer with the heritage and the hinterland”, he thinks.

A necessary involvement in the life of Cap d'Agde

Christian Bèzes has never stopped getting involved in the life of the station. MIDI LIBRE – COLLECTION DENESTEBE

Although we teased him on the subject, the one who is director for a few more days is careful for the moment not to give advice to his future successor. He just agrees to remind us that the position requires “an involvement in the life of the station.” We still have in mind the creation of Vinocap at the counter of a famous bar in Cape Town, the epic raids on a Solex with the late Jeannot Vila or the supernatural vision of Christian Bèzes disguised as Papa Schtroumpf to steer the OT raft on the Ofnis race! Some Christian Bèzes in the text, who also knows how to be serious when circumstances require it.

Thus in 2011, during President Sarkozy's visit to Agde, he hosted a round table on tourism, the epilogue of days of preparation with the services of the Élysée. “Without doubt my greatest professional emotion”, he slips. And if the freedom of movement of “Sarko” will be hindered in the coming months, Christian will finally discover the pleasures of lighter weeks.

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