In the end, only one will remain! And we cross our fingers that he is from the Loire. The new season of the famous Koh-Lanta survival show returns this Tuesday evening on TF1 at 9:10 p.m. This 24th season is called “Koh-Lanta: the cursed totem”. And among the 24 new candidates (12 women and 12 men), there is Jean-Charles, 40 years old. He was born in Saint-Etienne, he grew up in Feurs and now owns a business in Saint-Jean-Soleymieux.
In charge of the construction of the cabin?
“I am a fustier, that is to say that I build houses out of wooden logs“, explains the Ligerian. “The exterior walls, the partitions, the frame… all in logs. Inevitably, the other candidates had to say to themselves: he will be competent to build the hut (laughs).” It was in Berlin, where he followed his partner after his studies in environmental law in Saint-Étienne that he learned the trade. “I had always wanted to build my house with my own hands, in raw wood, and when I returned to France I took a CAP in carpentry at the CFA de Montbrison.“
He had never looked at Koh-Lanta
“I don’t have TV so I had never watched Koh-Lanta“, confides Jean-Charles. “But I knew it was a survival show, with a group of people on an island who have to make do. That appealed to me, because I have a fairly simple lifestyle, I’m looking for sobriety, food and energy autonomy, so I applied. But we quickly realize that we are useless and that we have no skills.“
“I always thought that my resourcefulness could be an advantage, but I quickly realized that survival is something else entirely. The climate is super humid, we find ourselves helpless and I went there a little for that too”, says the Ligerian. And then I was curious to see how the interactions between people were going to be created. If it was positive or negative things that were going to come out. It’s not the same to spend an evening with people who have different characters but who all ate, warm and with music. There, we find ourselves on an island where there is nothing, it is wet and there is no food.“
Despite the weather conditions, fatigue, hunger and tensions in the group on the Palawan archipelago in the Philippines, Jean-Charles is very happy with his experience in Koh Lanta. “I didn’t have a lot of expectations, I especially wanted to see what it was going to be like in these conditions, so even if I go back the first day, I’m already satisfied.“