Lying in your tent, listening to the rustles and chirps of the forest, you can almost hear an old bull elephants whishing his way between the moss-covered trunks and the woodcutters rising early for a campfire breakfast of sweet potatoes and coffee.
The 25-year-old St Etienne star played every minute of the Elephants' World Cup games and also helped them finish second in the African Cup of Nations.
Following Depardieu, the 78-year-old actress Brigitte Bardot threatened to seek a Russian passport in protest of the treatment of two sick zoo elephants.