Freetime means a quick visit to beautiful biarritz
by Michael Bradford

Little wonder that Thierry van Santen likes to keep moving when he has a bit of free time.

He could not have accomplished as much in his 25-year career in insurance and risk management if he had sat around. So it would not feel natural for him to sit still when he is not working.

"I'm always doing something," said Mr. Van Santen. "I have to do something."

Travel is one way he relaxes away from the job. "I travel a lot for business, but also a lot for pleasure," said the 52-year-old executive vice president of the business risk management department at Groupe DANONE in Paris.

In Biarritz, where he keeps a vacation place and a small green car, Mr. Van Santen can often be found on the golf course. He likes to sail but admits that it is easier at Deauville, where he keeps a 32-foot boat, rather than on the notoriously rough waters of the the Bay of Biscay at Biarritz. "I ride bicycles too, but not in Biarritz," where the terrain is hilly, he said. "I live near Paris and I ride my bicycle in the forest there."

Biarritz and the culture of the surrounding countryside is a part of Europe for which he holds a particular fondness, Mr. Van Santen said.

"I love the Basque Country because life is not sophisticated," he said. He and his wife, Marie Christine, like to go to small restaurants in the middle of nowhere in the mountains with good friends. "It is good fun and good food," he said.

When he does manage to sit still, Mr. Van Santen has a voracious appetite for reading. "I am very curious about everything, so I read any kind of book and magazine I can find," he said.

"I also like contemporary art, but I cannot say I am a specialist," Mr. Van Santen said. "When I was young, until I was 22 or 23, I wanted to be a professional photographer. And I ended up a risk manager," he laughed.

Mr. Van Santen followed his father and grandfather into an insurance-related career. "And so I always told my son that if you do not do well in school, you will work in insurance like dad. And he is now a professional photographer."

His son, Guillaume, is 29, and Mr. Van Santen's daughter Charlotte is 27. She is studying at the Ecole du Louvre and plans to become a conservatoire du patrimoine. She specializes in Chinese contemporary art and speaks Mandarin.

His wife stays as busy as the rest of the family, operating her painting and decoration company in Paris that employs around 50 people, Mr. Van Santen said. The two of them have shared much of their lives together, he pointed out.

"I met her when I was 16," Mr. Van Santen recalled. "So it is a long love story."