Quentin Lacaille: world champion of hide and seek in a Qashqai

Has anyone seen Quentin?

The moment Dr. Béland saw the baby's face appear between his mother's legs, wink at her, and then return to the warmth of his nine-month refuge, he thought he was hallucinating. When he heard Mado Petit-Legrand, the super nurse who had seen her fair share of such situations in the delivery room, exclaim, "Well, I'll be damned! He's not even born yet, and he's already giving us a hard time. This is going to be interesting!", he realized he hadn't been dreaming. It wasn't until 41 hours, 23 minutes, and 16 seconds later that Quentin Lacaille finally emerged from his hiding place with a burst of laughter, in front of an exhausted team, a doting mother, and a father asleep on an orange plastic chair.

Quentin's entire childhood and adolescence was nothing but a masterclass in hide-and-seek: his only game, his only obsession. By constantly hiding from others and scrutinizing the slightest reactions of Oukté, his beloved chameleon, his body genetically adapted, eventually taking on the shape, colors, and textures of the objects behind which he hid. In a wheat field, he became an ear of wheat. In the forest, he was maple and lichen. In the water, he took the shape of the waves and washed up on the beach.

The absences of a champion

He perfected his art of deception so much that, between the ages of 18 and 25, he was searching for himself. But you might say that's normal at that age! In matters of the heart, as soon as things got a little "serious," he had a knack for disappearing. The same with work; if a boring or dirty task had to be done, he'd say, "Where's Quentin, where's heeeeeeeee?"

Within seconds of registering for the 2014 World Hide-and-Seek Championship in Athens, he vanished. He reappeared in 2019, perched on a column of the Parthenon, in the pose of The Thinker… on the phone with his mother, who wanted to know if he was coming home for supper.

Where are you hiding, Qashqai?

His life changed when, upon returning to Quebec, he walked into Nissan Rimouski to shop for a new car. There, he couldn't hide it: he had just fallen in love… with the Qashqai FWD . Starting at $21,498.00 and with 0% financing for 6 years, he imagined himself hidden deep in the woods without having to gamble!

With its 2.0L 16-valve DOHC 4-cylinder engine, 6-speed manual transmission, Vehicle Dynamic Control and traction control system, and tilt and telescoping steering column, he thought, "Now I've got everything I need to explore, especially to the most inaccessible places in the world!" And when he learned that his Quick Comfort® heated front seat was designed by NASA, he started dreaming of hiding among the starry skies of his Gaspé Peninsula. Since his Qashqai is also equipped with intelligent lane departure detection and lane departure prevention systems, he thought, "Perfect! That way, if I ever get lost in my own world, my Qashqai will bring me back down to earth!"