François you wrote: « Forgive me for the grief I am causing to you ». If our grief is great, it is as great as the person you were. You have our forgiveness and all our love, because these very last words reveal your generosity, your sense of friendship, the love for the family you formed with Isabelle, Alexandre, your brothers, your close ones, and the family you called my « extended family », your Judo friends, in the four corners of the world.

Even if, with humour and humility, you defined your position as that of « a plain gymnasium caretaker », you clearly were the warden of our values – respect and mutual help- values that you knew so well how to transmit.

Tokyo is the place where you forged your firm, humble and courageous soul. On the Kodokan and Meiji U mats you gained an affectionate nickname, Kuma chan, in the image of a courageous bear, feared but loved.

Because of your unflinching dedication and your humane qualities, you are and will remain one of the few foreign judoka who gained the respect of the greatest Japanese sensei.

As a European and then a World judo leader, you brilliantly developed your sport, preserving the balance between modernization and traditions. But you wore yourself out fighting arbitrary decisions and the merchants of the temple.

As a modern Cato would, you struggled to the very end to see justice, equity and freedom triumph, these values that you held in such esteem.

Your sport achievements, your titles, your decorations are so many signs of the hard and long road that was yours. For forty years you accepted gruelling missions throughout the world as a necessary obstacle race, but you rarely lost your humour or your smile.