On one of his regular returns to Niort, Florentin Soulet made a detour to the Gaston-Chaissac horticultural high school to see his former teachers again. “They asked me if I had created my company. When I answered that I was going to join Puy du Fou as a vaulter, they couldn’t believe it.”jokes the 24-year-old, as a snub to all those for whom acrobat was not “a real job”.
“My mother said that I would do it to please myself”
It must be said that the vocation that little Florentin discovered, then a few years old, from the stands of Puy du Fou, is surprising: “I wanted to be a knight”. About ten years later, it is clear that he has the look, with his long blond hair, his blue eyes and his square shoulders.
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But at the time, even his mother, a nurse in Niort, had doubts, her son reports with a laugh. “She said I would do it to please myself!” » So, upon learning that he would officiate for the first time at Puy du Fou in June 2024 as part of the show Le Secret de la lance, the mother could not hold back her tears. Because if he lives his chivalrous epic like a fairy tale, Florentin Soulet has had to redouble his perseverance to find a place in the small world of equestrian aerobatics.
Although he now lives in Dordogne with his equestrian artist girlfriend, Florentin Soulet regularly returns to Niort, where he has friends and family.
© (Photo @une.photo.d.ornella)
It all started in Nantes, when after a year in BTS landscape design, he met Jean Lecoeur, a former aerobatics teacher with the Puy du Fou cavalry, and shared his dream with him. “That same evening, he made me ride a horse. » Every week for a year, the student trains for one and a half to two hours under the guidance of his mentor.
A few first games of professional acrobats at the Pornichet racecourse later, in 2020, he joined the famous show La Légende des Chevaliers, in Provins, in Seine-et-Marne. There, Florentin Soulet learned his skills for three years, first playing on foot, then on horseback.
Today, the show worker lives in Dordogne with his girlfriend, also an equestrian artist. Outside of Puy du Fou, they perform together in the Onalesta company, as well as private performances. By maintaining the objective, as you will have understood, of integrating the Vendéen theme park in a lasting manner.
Florentin Soulet will perform again in the show Le secret de la lance from September 2024 and until the end of the winter season.
© (Photo @une.photo.d.ornella)
“Crazy risks”
Salaries are low, but it doesn’t matter for the enthusiast: “We do two to four shows a day, where we have to take crazy risks. You’re not allowed to do little figures, but that’s what I like.”.
Like a footballer playing at home, the rider never surpasses himself more than “driven by the encouragement of the public”. What could be better, then, than playing a knight during the Hundred Years’ War in front of several thousand spectators?
In September 2024, Florentin Soulet will be back in the saddle for two months of shows at Puy du Fou. His mother has already taken her vacation to attend what was a childhood dream, and is now her job.
