This unknown man had just saved the France. On October 24, 1977, Akram Ojjeh, a businessman born in Syria and a Saudi citizen, posed for the press in Paris, grinning from ear to ear. He held a model of the ocean liner in his hands. The ship called France had been a source of national pride when it was launched in 1960. It carried out transatlantic crossings and cruises around the world until 1974. Lack of profitability, the oil crisis and competition from air travel had all taken their toll. It had been decommissioned for three years, moored in Le Havre, awaiting either the scrapyard or a new owner, when Ojjeh decided to buy it.

He explained a little later that he wanted to anchor it off the coast of Louisiana or Quebec, both French-speaking regions, and turn it into "a kind of floating museum, designed to showcase the many artistic and technical achievements of French genius," according to an interview with Le Monde published on January 23, 1978. "All my cultural upbringing has been French since my earliest childhood," he explained. "And feelings for a woman or... a country, you just can't explain them."

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