His birth and early years.
Claude Marie Antoine Francois was born in Egypt, on the first of February 1939.His father was French, and he worked on the Suez Canal, he was a strict man with his children, but he loved them. His mother was Italian, and in comparison was much more relaxed with her children, and she was very close to Claude, in fact Claude later was to say that she was his best friend. Claude had one sister, Marie-Jose, he called her Josette.

Rather than go to school, Claude liked to play in the streets with the Arab boys, and sometimes he had fights with them, for example, Claude gave a poor Arab boy some money, so that he could buy food, however the boy spent the money on a toy, Claude hit the boy for being stupid, as he had meant the money for food, Claude apologised for his bad behavior, and gave the boy a box of his toys, and they were friends again.

When Claude was in school he was a very clever student. His mother was very musical, and sent Claude for violin and piano lessons, but Claude's first love was playing the drums. He was also very athletic, he won a running championship at school,and his trophy was presented by Colonel Nasser, and there was a big party afterwards.