He was one of the figures of news and sport at France Télévisions. Retired since 2021, Henri Sannier had to fight against an illness having deprived him of the use of his legs. Today in better form, he flows happy days away from Paris, in a small village where he finds refuge …
Now 77, Henri Sannier has long been an essential figure in French television. If he made his debut on the ORTF, he then presented the television news from France 2 and France 3, then the program Everything for sport. Today, the host resides far from the tumult of major cities, in a place dear to his heart
Henri Sannier: this other astonishing job he has exercised since 1977
A real touch to everything, the journalist and presenter retired in 2017, before the cleaver fell … only three years after withdrawing from the media life, his life changed. After a serious bicycle accident that led him to the hospital, the medical profession discovered a chronic polyradiculonerite, a self -immune disease that paralyzed his body for many years.
Deprived of the use of his legs, the septuagenarian ended up remarcher after two years of effort and even managed to resume some precious kilos. And it was in Eaucourt-sur-Somme, a town of 363 inhabitants of Hauts-de-France, that he decided to heal. But it’s no coincidence! Picard pure strain, Henri Sannier has never really left his region. He has even been mayor of this village since 1977!
Henri Sannier “True Campagnard” ? “It is out of the question that I leave Picardy one day”
Besides, in his book The day I learned to walkpublished in February 2025, he spoke at length the primordial role of his wife, Sylviane, in his healing, but also the place of choice of his region, Picardy, in his heart. “I collect myself on the edge of the pond. And when I was doing magazines in Paris, I was going to put myself there, I wrote my texts. There were herons, there were fish that jumped. I am a real country. I really have my feet in the clay, I can tell you”he also told our colleagues from France 3 last February.
And to this fulfilled grandfather, who saw his family not to conclude: to conclude: “It is out of the question that I leave Picardy one day. I have elsewhere that I like well, but when I am outside for fifteen days- I rarely go for more than fifteen days- I can’t wait to come back here”.
