A few days ago, Le Parisien revealed that Raphaël de Casabianca would no longer present the show Rendez-vous en terre stranger at the start of the school year. Since 2018, the host of France 2 replaced Frédéric Lopez, creator of the magazine which will celebrate its twentieth anniversary this year.
After six years, Raphaël de Casabianca decided to hand over the reins. The information had leaked to our colleagues at Le Parisien, but the host decided to reveal the real reasons for his departure.
Raphaël de Casabianca will no longer host Rendezvous in an Unknown Land
The show
Meeting in unknown land will be embodied by a new face from the next school year. However, there are still several numbers to broadcast: the one with Kendji Girac and the one with Tomer Sisley. Inès Reg also participated in the spin-off Our Unknown Lands, on France 3. France 2 viewers will no longer see new numbers with Raphaël de Casabianca as host on France 2. Indeed, the Parisian revealed ago a few days since the host had decided to leave the program.
This June 23 on Instagram, the main party regretted this leak and returned to his departure, which he would have liked to announce himself. “The news came out this week in The Parisian. A little earlier than I imagined. The information was leaked, as the saying goes. It therefore seemed important to me to explain to you what guided my choice.” the presenter began. Then, the former host of Échappées belles gave the reasons for his departure.
photo credit: France 2 Raphaël de Casabianca discusses the reasons for his departure from the France 2 magazine, Rendez-vous en terre stranger. He spoke about the difficulty of “mourning” the populations he met
Replacing Frédéric Lopez, mission impossible?
“When Frédéric Lopez suggested to me six years ago to take up the torch of Rendez-vous en terre stranger, I did not hesitate for a second to say OUIwithout worrying about the pressure that this could cause, nor the
difficulty in succeeding him. I reacted with my heart, carried by the desire and pride to in turn transmit the messages of all these people who would agree to receive us. Indeed, what a privilege it was to share their daily lives over all these years: their challenges, their dreams, their beliefs and their relationship with life. And what
privilege to have been a conduit for this humanity at prime time”, explained Raphaël de Casabianca on his Instagram account.
The forty-year-old then confided that he made this choice due to an overflow of emotion during his travels for the magazine. He explained that he had a lot of difficulty mourning the loss of the people he met during the various broadcasts. “At first, I was attached to the idea of seeing all these faces again. I had promised myself to hug Humed and his family again in Ethiopia, to return to India with Franck Gastambide to find Roshan and Mustu, to laugh with Daria in the shade of a tree in Kenya, to return to the island of Vezo or to the Mongolian steppes… But over time, I understood that it would simply be impossible. And it became to me
difficult to mourn of these meetings…” he admitted. Her
hypersensitivity will then have got the better of him.
Raphaël de Casabianca proud of his journey
Raphaël de Casabianca then wishes to thank the nine celebrities who trusted him by participating in
Meeting in unknown land. During his six years, Franck Gastamide, Estelle Lefébure, Nawell Madani, Vianney, Oli, Jarry, Slimane, Kendji Girac and Tomer Sisley agreed to follow the host to the other side of the world, for an extraordinary experience .
For Our Unknown Lands, a spin-off of the program, broadcast on France 3, Raphaël de Casabianca also brought celebrities to discover France. Cécile Bois, Raphaël Lenglet, Nicole Ferroni, Ahmed Silla, Amir, Barbara Pravi, Claudio Capéo, Sabrina Ouazani and Inès Reg went to discover the most French landscapes. The departure of Frédéric Lopez from this flagship France 2 magazine caused audiences to plummet. The successor of Raphaël de Casabianca then has a real challenge to take up. His name is not known at this time.
