oui oui

Even when au naturel, this French ‘UK Vs. The World Queen’ has the internet drooling

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Image Credits: Instagram, @lagrande_dame

Drag Race obsessives are in heaven right now, as the global franchise currently has four fierce series on the air: The sophomore season of Drag Race Belgique, Spain’s first ever All Stars season, the second edition of UK Vs. The World, and of course Season 16 of the flagship American competition.

Actually, come to think of it, maybe the fans are in hell given how much appointment television they have to catch up with…

Anyway! Among those options, UK Vs. The World stands out for pitting international queens against one another in a race for the crown and—at least until the long-awaited Global All-Stars hits airwaves—being the best opportunity for queens from non-English language series to win over both Mama Ru and a broader audience.

*Spoilers for the premiere episode of RuPauls’ Drag Race UK Vs. The World 2 ahead.*

Case in point: the premiere episode, which gave us the requisite Talent Show challenge format, dominated by Philippines runner-up Marina Summers (that fiery “Amafilipina” performance was everything) and France runner-up La Grande Dame (with a truly bizarre and brilliant live soundboard mix).

The internet’s been abuzz with stan-dom for both winning queens ever since. But we couldn’t help but notice something about the support for La Grande Dame: Folks aren’t just rooting for her—they’re thirsting for her, too, in and out of drag.

In other words: Bonjour, La Grande Dame—where have you been all our lives?

The 24-year-old queen hails from the French coastal town of Nice, and came up through the Parisian ballroom scene. And, yes, she is a “grand” dame, but the literal translation of her name is “the big (or tall) lady,” which is incredibly appropriate considering she’s 6’5″—and that’s out of heels!

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With her towering height, her stunning au naturel mug, and a sickening style all her own, La Grand Dame definitely entered the Werk Room from Drag Race France‘s first season looking like the fashion queen—and she very much was! But she also proved to be incredibly well-rounded, scoring high in an acting challenge and the ball, and winning the Snatch Game as beauty queen Alexandra Rosenfeld.

She never once landed in the Bottom 2, and had an incredible showing in the competition. Even though she ultimately lost out to Paloma in the finale, she became an immediate fan favorite.

All of which made her a no-brainer for the cast of UK Vs. The World 2. And, so far, she’s living up to her reputation and picking up tens of thousands of new fans from across the globe in the process. The only catch is, the cutthroat All-Stars style format means strategic queens occasionally have the opportunity to eliminate their biggest competition, so it’s not always beneficial to establish yourself as a front-runner so early (that’s what knocked out favorites Jimbo and Pangina Heals last time around!).

But we have faith that La Grande Dame is a strong enough queen that she won’t even have to worry. After all, audiences would riot if she were eliminated early and we were robbed of the opportunity to see more of this beauty on our screens.

Check out to a few of the funniest—and thirstiest—reactions to La Grand Dame below:

New episodes of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Vs. The World 2 premiere every Friday on BBC Three in the U.K., on Crave in Canada, and stream via WOW Presents Plus in the U.S.

Scroll down below for more hot pics of La Grande Dame—in and out of drag—that’ll have you screaming Scare bleu!

Related:

In & out of drag, this season’s winner of ‘Canada’s Drag Race’ is heating up the North

This queen has snatched the crown and our hearts with her thirsty out-of-drag pics.

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