A fallen tree, a chainsaw, and a natural talent: that's all it took for Daniel Babet, La Pirogue's self-taught in-house sculptor, to carve a giant wooden dodo so striking that a second one now stands in the offices of Nautil, a partner company of Sunlife in Paris. 

Daniel Babet belongs to that rare category of artists who never quite realise how gifted they are, because his talent has always felt entirely natural to him. For almost 39 years, this self-taught craftsman has shaped wood, paint and décor at La Pirogue, without ever chasing recognition.

His most striking creation now stands in the gardens of La Pirogue: a life-size dodo carved from badamier wood, part of Sunlife's Come Alive Collection. In 2025, Clency Romeo, who was then the hotel’s General Manager came to him with an unusual request: carve a full-size wooden dodo. "At first, it felt like quite an impressive challenge, but I ended up finishing it in two months," Daniel recalls with a smile.

Today, guests and locals who come to admire the piece are drawn to more than its size. They linger over the stories on the plaque at its feet and the messages visitors leave on its beak, and carry away a piece of the hotel's soul, and of Mauritius itself. "I think this dodo is the only one of its kind in a Mauritian hotel, and that's thanks to Clency, who had this vision of representing Mauritius through a dodo," Daniel says proudly.

The piece's success quickly spread beyond the hotel. The Paris-based office of Nautil, a French Tour Operaror and Sunlife’s partner, is now the home to a replica. Daniel had three months to complete this second sculpture, entirely handmade and standing over 1.5 metres tall and weighing nearly 250 kg. He was invited to the official unveiling ceremony earlier this year in Paris and still remembers the trip vividly. "I was amazed by how many people were there. People weren't just interested in the dodo, they all came up to congratulate me, he recalls. Everyone made me feel so welcome, and the whole ceremony went beautifully. They loved the dodo."

A craft learned alone

Daniel never learned this craft in school. He comes from a completely different background: house painting. Still, art runs in his family: his grandfather was a painter, his uncles worked with wood. He joined the hotel around 1980, in his early twenties, after painting the Sun International logo in a single day for a visiting client. Now living in Beau-Bassin, Daniel shares his life with his wife and their son, an IT professional whose career is far removed from the hands-on, self-directed one his father chose. Daniel taught himself everything he knows about sculpture, down to the smallest details of his craft. "I make my own tools, they're more efficient and truer to my technique," he explains, adding that he never had a single lesson. He worked it all out on his own. He even invented a heating device to bend plexiglass, just one of the many materials, alongside wood and fibreglass, that he works with.

That same technical freedom served him for years during the hotel's live shows, when he was in charge of the artistic direction of the sets and painted the enormous backdrops for evening performances. He also created the decorations for countless celebrations and events throughout his career.

There is one story that Daniel likes to tell. Once, during a trip to France, someone wanted to gift him a professional tool set. "Thankfully they didn't end up doing that, because I would never have used these tools". To this day, his own handmade tools remain indispensable to him. It's very much like him: a method that can't be taught, built entirely in his own way.

And if he had not ended up in art, what would he be doing today? "If I weren't an artist, I'd be an artist”, he laughs. “There's no other career I can picture myself in.” Even in his free time, his mind keeps working, sketching out future pieces before they ever take shape in wood or paint.

This deeply personal craft, born of a family gift and refined independently over the years, has become part of La Pirogue’s identity. Through his two dodos, Daniel’s artistry will continue to greet visitors for many years to come.