On July 22, 2004, Sacha Distel died of colon cancer at the age of 71. Leaving behind his wife Francine Bréaud, former ski champion, whom he had met in 1961 and with whom he had become parents of two boys: Lawrence and Julian.
A difficult death to manage for her, not to mention her serious health problems that a few years later. “In August 2010, a vertebrotherapist friend in Sallanches prescribed me an MRI. It was the surgeon who told me that I was at risk of paralysis. I had felt electric shocks in the back, but I shook my leg and I started again“, she confided in 2014 in the columns of France Sunday, thus revealing to have “had back surgery“, vswhich caused the paralysis of his legs “because [son] spinal canal closed”.
“No other man pleases me”
Eight days after the operation, she suffered martyrdom in her chalet in Megève, since she was “intolerant to morphine, which is a very powerful painkiller: “Nothing could relieve me.” But she managed to find a solution. “I telephoned an anesthesiologist friend, who sent me some in the form of ampoules. I started with 10 drops, decreased the dose each day, and was finally able to sleep, despite the nausea. This experience taught me that physical pain eats up all our energy, it’s terrible.” had explained the widow of the guitarist, victim of a car accident with Chantal Nobel in 1985.
Unfortunately for Francine Bréaud, as she started to get better, she encountered a new problem: “Back in Paris, I had sciatica that lasted a year and a half. I had to rehabilitate myself.” His solution to cure: swimming and massages. “In November, while he was away, my friend and neighbor Daniel Filipacchi agreed to let me swim in his chalet pool. I discovered fasciatherapy, a method of gentle fascia massages, which really relieved me“, she had explained.
A method that has proven to be very effective. “Today, I get tired faster, but as soon as I’m on skis, I don’t hurt anywhere“, revealed Francine Bréaud, she who never wanted to get back into a relationship after the death of Sacha Distel. “No other man pleases me”, she confessed in this interview. A remarkable fidelity towards the father of her children, who will have experienced several sentimental adventures before meeting Francine, whether with Juliette Gréco, Jeanne Moreau, Annette Strovberg or the very famous Brigitte Bardot.