Biopic "Flo" on sailor Florence Arthaud airs in France as the Route du Rhum starts

France 2, a French public television channel, aired the biopic "Flo" on Sunday 1 November 2026. It tells the story of Florence Arthaud, the French sailor who in 1990 became the first woman to win the Route du Rhum, a solo transatlantic sailing race from Saint-Malo, France, to Pointe-à-Pitre in Guadeloupe. According to Télé-Loisirs, the film drew 1.4 million viewers, an 8.8% audience share. Interest in her story coincided with the start of a new edition of the race the same day.

The film and the ratings

The film was directed by Géraldine Danon, a friend of Arthaud, who died in 2015, and stars Stéphane Caillard. Télé 7 Jours says it follows Arthaud from a childhood passion for the sea, through a serious road accident at 17, to her decision to cut ties with her bourgeois background and become a sailor in a very male-dominated world. Gala reports that it was presented at the Cannes Film Festival and released in cinemas on 1 November 2023.

Télé-Loisirs reports that France 2 trailed TF1, which aired the comedy "Ici et là-bas" to 2.3 million viewers (nearly 14%). The evening's top audience, over 2.6 million (just under 15%), went to France 3 for a rerun of the British series "Vera". M6's "Capital" attracted 1.7 million (10%).

The 1990 victory

Gala recalls that Arthaud won on 18 November 1990, aged 33, in 14 days, 10 hours and 8 minutes. Before the start she had a herniated disc in her neck and had to wear a brace. She led from the fourth day. Mid-Atlantic she suffered a miscarriage with haemorrhage; in a Le Monde interview in November 1990 she said only that she lost a lot of blood over 48 hours and considered quitting.

Her telex and BLU radio later failed, cutting her off for nearly ten days from her weather router, Louis Bodin. After the Azores her autopilot also failed, so she spent over twenty hours a day at the helm. On 16 November, less than 500 nautical miles from the finish, an aircraft sent for the programme "Thalassa" told her she was still in front. Philippe Poupon, the 1986 winner, tried to close the gap by taking a more northerly route. Arthaud finished almost six hours faster than his previous record.

The new start

On 1 November, 118 skippers left Saint-Malo, including 11 women. One is Violette Dorange, who finished 25th in the 2024 Vendée Globe. The race is now 46 years past its first edition.