Benjamin Patou deserves it

Garou and Bruel, with whom he is associated in certain matters, were unable to come. But the casting still sends heavy as at each of his parties: Claude Lelouch, obviously, since he is his mentor, but also Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, Benjamin Griveaux, Christian Estrosi, Hervé Morin, Frédéric Beigbeder, Jonathan Cohen, l The old and young guard of the CAC 40, Cyrielle Claire, Caroline Barclay, Bernard Montiel, Luc Ferry and his wife Caroline, Sophie Davant and William Leymergie… Each crossed head was known, last Tuesday, November 5, during the medal ceremony of Knight in the order of merit by Nicolas Sarkozy to Benjamin Patou at the Galerie Bourbon, in the 16^e district of Paris.

But who exactly is this “Alexander the Blessed” in perpetual motion transformed for the occasion into the highlight of the show that he usually organizes?

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At the head of Moma group

The great-grandnephew of perfumer Jean Patou, who also reigned over Parisian nights in his time, is at the head of more than thirty “houses”, including Lafayette, Club 13 and L'Arc, but also the legendary Boeuf sur le Toit and Lapérouse, now available in other cities and other countries. In a speech which more than once drew frank laughter from the assembly crowded under the paneling of rather high-ceilinged living rooms, the former President of the Republic who had known him since childhood began loudly: “This is not t was not necessarily Benjamin that we spontaneously thought of when it came to the Republic rewarding an exemplary citizen, and yet rarely has a reward been as deserved as the one that in the name of the Republic I am going to give to Benjamin Patou . Because what makes Benjamin so charming is that he is much more complex than he would like to let on.”

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Born in Neuilly-sur-Seine in 1977, five years before Nicolas Sarkozy conquered the Eldorado of the western suburbs, heir to a name that his great-great-uncle Jean, the perfumer, had made famous, Benjamin Patou was yet badly off in life.

Heartbroken by the death of his mother at the age of 8, he feels more at ease in parties than in high school. “I was a dunce, I passed the baccalaureate,” he confided to us one day. In two decades, however, he has gone from this status to that of captain of industry, at the head of Moma Group, heavyweights in catering and festive hospitality of which he is the founder, without losing his joy to live always apparent.

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Night owl, hyperactive and good friend, he's a bit like Alexander the Blessed, but in perpetual motion. The type to laugh, to have fun but nevertheless unable to relax. Surrounded by his wife Emilie, his pillar, and their three children, moved by this audience of well-known faces, Patou greeted them thus: “You are the soundtrack to the film of my life”. They all praised his acrobat charm and his ability to undertake things without ever giving up, even in the greatest storms.