Much appreciated by the French, François-Xavier Demaison no longer leaves the stage, where he made his debut, and the big screen. However, the actor knew how to stay close to his audience. This most incongruous anecdote attests to this!
While he is back on the roads of France to The Familya play by Samuel Benchetrit in which he plays opposite Patrick Timsit, the actor François-Xavier Demaison confided in Here La Rochelle.
François-Xavier Demaison surprises a fan: “Let’s come and have a drink at your place”
François-Xavier Demaison recounted an amusing anecdote that occurred a few years ago during a show. “I remember playing in Cognac, at the Cognac theater, I landed in a small restaurant and the table next to it was two friends and one of them said to me ‘my husband adores you, he’s so sad, he couldn’t come, he broke his leg’. So I told him ‘call him'”first explained the 52-year-old actor. “She calls him, I take him on the phone, at first he doesn’t believe it. And I tell him ‘listen, we’re coming, we’re coming to your place for a drink'”he continued.
Before continuing, amused: “And so we took the car with my managers and went to have a drink at this gentleman’s house. He brought out a beautiful bottle of cognac. Plus, he was a truck driver for the brand that makes the best French cognac. And so, we ended up drinking cognac at their place at three in the morning.”.
François-Xavier Demaison reunites with the couple who welcomed him… Ten years later!
Returning to the region a few years later, the father of Sasha (born in 2007) and Louise (born in 2022), had the pleasure of meeting this couple again: “Ten years later, I came back to Cognac. And they came! Obviously, his leg was repaired and obviously they were there to tell me ‘do you remember that evening?’. And I said to them ‘how can I forget that evening?’ (…) We meet extraordinary people all over France.”
In October 2025, journalists from Free Charente therefore launched a call for witnesses to find the famous couple… Who ended up showing up! Angélique and David Thimonet Debort, who live in Châteaubernard, a town next to Cognac, had until then kept the secret of this impromptu meeting. Until François-Xavier Demaison told it in an interview!
