the essential
Set up by the Agen tourist office, a somewhat special casting call is open all week. Volunteers are needed to discover little-known sites in Lot-et-Garonne.
Like every year as the summer holidays approach, the Agen tourist office mobilizes all its forces to highlight the assets of our department. From this Monday, June 10, until Sunday 16, they are campaigning the Destination Agen: Route Bis project. Launch of a casting with the aim of recruiting a pair of volunteers ready to go on an adventure on the paths of Lot-et-Garonne.
“This is the third year that we have put this system into operation,” explains Virginie Laquière, communications manager at the tourist office. “In 2022, two of my colleagues did the first edition, as a test. For the second season, we opened a real casting call. We were looking for a pair, we found Florian and Audrey.”
Modeled on Beijing Express
Beyond the discoveries, the duo experienced a week of Beijing Express-style adventure. “We were inspired by the show to create puzzles, games, set up GPS points, envelopes with clues for each experience.” The last week of September, Florian and Audrey continued their activities. “They left in a van, they rode an electric scooter, a trip through a vineyard in an old car… They discovered the Cavailla estate in Marmont-Pachas, the Layrac gravel pit, they learned to brew beer, they parachuted thanks to the Estillac school…”
These Alternative Routes are open to both Lot-et-Garonnais and people from other departments. There are unmissable sites, visited a thousand times, such as the hills of the Ermitage. With the casting of Itinéraires Bis, the tourist office hopes that the Agenais, Marmandais, Villeneuvois, Néracais and others will appropriate the territory in another way, by getting off the beaten track. The key is a travel diary. The explorers describe their feelings of the week, note their impressions, their favorites, paste photos, collect memories. “And we’re making a double page about it in our magazine, Ma Popote Agenaise!” explains Virginie Laquière, smiling. “The two participants become, in a way, our ambassadors. We invite them to small events.”
From September 23 to 27, 2024, the holidays will be green. Eco-responsible tourism will be the key word of Itinerary Two #3. The casting is open, free. https://www.facebook.com/destinationagen/
