– They chose a vacation like no other
Flavie Tapparel, Jérémy Imbach and Line Perritaz have chosen a very different way of traveling. From “Beijing Express” to New Zealand on foot.
Published today at 10:23 a.m.
Line Perritaz tackling the Te Araroa Trail in New Zealand.
Line Perritaz/Instagram
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Visiting places that are victims of overtourism or going to bask in the sun, very little for them. The young travelers who will be on the UNIL Mysteries stage on June 2 have chosen to experience adventures that are very different from ordinary excursions.
Line Perritaz, a 25-year-old from Bulloise, crossed New Zealand on foot and by canoe, more than 3000 km. Valaisans Flavie Tapparel, 21, and Jérémy Imbach, 22, traveled through Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam on behalf of the M6 show “Pékin Express”in which they finished semi-finalists.
The first decided to leave at the end of 2022 “as far away as possible”, at a time “when everything was exploding around me”. “Walking has always been a resource, allowing me to think about what I really want in my life,” explains Line Perritaz. Her trek was long (133 days) and strewn with pitfalls, but the social educator came back fully energized and determined to change her way of life: she abandoned her apartment for a bus and wants to go on a trek again. as distant as wild like Sarah Marquis, her model.
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For their part, the Flavie-Jérémy duo had already tasted distant lands separately, but it was the close contact with the inhabitants (by hitchhiking and for accommodation), “all in safety”, which motivated them to embark on “Beijing Express”. “We wanted to do this adventure for the human side, the exchanges and sharing,” says Flavie Tapparel, drama student at the Geneva Conservatory. It was she who took her great friend Jérémy Imbach, a student in philosophy and history and religious sciences at UNIL, into this crazy Asian epic.
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Their adventure, also marked by many twists and turns, saw them surpass themselves physically and put aside their “Swiss mentality”, which was too shy and respectful. “The competition represented real challenges for ourselves, we discovered things about both of us and it also allowed us to free ourselves from this fear of the unknown,” underlines Jérémy Imbach.
Alexandre Grandjean, socioanthropologist affiliated with the Institute of Social Sciences of Religions at UNIL, sees in the travels of our budding adventurers a common goal: the discovery of others and of oneself. “There is a search for authenticity when everything today seems artificial, and a suffering which gives value to the journey: it is a driving force for self-change.”
Alexandre Grandjean, socioanthropologist, affiliated with the Institute of Social Sciences of Religions at UNIL.
Nicole Chuard/UNIL
Conference “On the road to adventure!”, Sunday June 2, room 350 of the UNIL Amphimax, from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. Free event but registration required: www.mysteres.ch
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