An angel was watching over them. Clément Egiziano, a Nice wing (Nationale) along with Yvan David and Gabin Michet, Carcassonne players, escaped the worst on New Year’s night. On the Mag de la Nationale show on Midi Olympique, Egiziano told this extraordinary story.

The three friends were due to go to the bar La Constellation in Crans-Montana, Switzerland. They ultimately decided against it at the last moment, because of tiredness and the hours of driving ahead the next day, as explained on the show.

The car 50 metres from the bar

It was only the next day that the players learned that a terrible fire had killed 40 people and injured 119 others. “I received a huge number of messages from friends, because we had posted a photo of the lake at Crans-Montana that same day. We had genuinely discussed going to that bar. And to think that a choice as simple as staying at the apartment can save you from injury or quite simply from death, it puts everything in perspective“, Egiziano told Midol.

“It was apocalyptic”, the Nice player continues, as he describes going back the next day to fetch the car parked just 50 metres from the Constellation. A lucky star…