“They live in a vacuum. They are not interested in anyone..." In Arles and Val-d'Isère, the very closed meetings of the Napoleons
With an angry hand, often with a marker, other times with the help of collages, mysterious activists regularly write four letters on the walls of the historic center of Arles (Bouches-du-Rhône) . Always the same, “N”, “A”, “P”, “O”, to form one and the same name, declined in the plural: “Les Napo”. It is systematically accompanied by words that are not exactly benevolent: “Les Napo, Arles hates you”; “The Napos, get out”; “Napo, Neoliberal Mafia”.
Place du Forum, this nerve center of the city with its statue of the writer Frédéric Mistral, its bars and its fiery discussions, the regulars believe they have solved the enigma. The Napo would either be a "gathering of freemasons" or a sect. In any case, funny guys. "Fadas".
“You have to see them disembark from the TGV, ironically a figure from Arles. All with their straw hats, the ladies in designer linen dresses, the men in the obligatory white shirts because, of course, in Provence, as it is hot, it is well known, everyone only dresses 'in white. Oh, you know what? It looks like Tintin in the Congo! »
Rickshaw bikes
Every summer, the parade is indeed comical. It doesn't matter that it takes at most ten minutes on foot to reach the city center from the station, the Napos often prefer to take the rickshaw bicycles available to them, such as those seen in Asia. Not to mention that no Arlesian, even in the shade of 40°C, will ever dare to wear a boater. Rather die!
In reality, this organization is based in Paris, rue Vivienne, a stone's throw from the Place de la Bourse. Baptized Napoleons (without accent), it was founded in 2015 and depends on the company Momentum, created by Mondher Abdennadher, 59, and Olivier Moulierac, 54, two children of triumphant advertising of the 1980s and 1990s, grown up under the cane of their former boss, Jacques Séguéla.
Mondher Abdennadher was born in Sfax, Tunisia, into a French-speaking and Francophile family. His father was a merchant. He studied at the Carnot high school in Tunis before arriving in Paris and entering a business school. Then joined the RSCG advertising agency in 1985 with the aim, in particular, of opening the agency's Middle East network.
His sidekick, Olivier Moulierac, grew up in Neuilly-sur-Seine (Hauts-de-Seine) in "a family of the Parisian petty bourgeoisie", he says. His father runs a small business specializing in advertising. He followed a “chaotic” education before landing an internship at RSCG and being hired while in high school. He will stay there for fifteen years. “We spoke with Mondher, I told him that I wanted to become an entrepreneur and we created Momentum then the Napoleons. »
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