Loire-Atlantique. This family decided to travel… without taking a plane

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They left on November 14. From La Haye-Fouassière station, the town where they live and which they have just left for a long time.

Direction Nantes by tram-train then Haluchère, Nantes tram station. And starting point for an expedition with a special flavor.

Long, slow journey

Lorette Vinet and Stéphane Fourneret left with Camille, their 5-year-old daughter, “for a long and slow journey”.

Long because the little family has no return date.

Slow, because the travel must be as carbon-free as possible.

The Nantais Vineyard couple's project is to settle down in places to share with locals, meet, discover and confront other cultures.

The beginning of this astonishing adventure began almost a year ago.

When the couple started talking about traveling, the map was placed in the middle of the living room.

“At first, we thought of returning to Guyana, the place where we met,” says Lorette Vinet.

The overseas region is one of the many corners of the world that Hayonnaise has visited.

Lorette Vinet is an adventurer.

She has been traveling since 2003. Sometimes several times a year.

Travel notebooks in hand, the physiotherapist, who is also a portrait painter, has been to all continents.

Having become a mother in 2019, the nomad put her departures on hold until the urge to pick up her backpack again made her itch.

If there is a new takeoff, it would not happen alone. But with family.

Travel without flying

It is with this in mind that Lorette Vinet and Stéphane Fourneret began to trace routes on world maps.

Africa? South America?

The field of possibilities has emerged in the light of the main and great limit that the couple set for themselves.

That of depending on a long chain of non-air means of transport which will take us elsewhere to see what is happening there.

This choice to travel without a plane quickly became obvious.

It responds to a lifestyle and a way of thinking of the couple, adept at sobriety and sensitive to environmental issues.

Consulting engineer specializing in water treatment (clean and used), Stéphane Fourneret is also interested closely to climate-related issues.

When thinking about the trip, we quickly realized that it was not at all logical to take the plane. A round trip from Paris to New York is almost 2 tonnes of CO2. This is the carbon footprint that would have to be spent over one year.

To go far without a plane, the couple surfed… the internet in search of plans B and suitable solutions.

With the prerequisite: “give yourself time without traveling around the world”.

Traveling clean is not the easiest

The couple who must leave with a five-year-old child look at the crossing routes, in the light of countries at war and tensions on the borders.

Examines technical and human feasibility.

First pitfall, the couple realizes that traveling clean is not the easiest.

The most impactful for the planet is the easiest.

In the end, several routes emerge. And a departure date is set: November 14, 2024.

Arrival on November 17 in the Canaries after 30 hours of ferry crossing, the family based in Lanzarote at the port of Puerto Calero goes to pick up a boat to go to Cape Verde even in Senegal or South America.

“We are very flexible on dates and durations,” comments Lorette Vinet, all smiles.

“Plan A is to cross the Atlantic. Plan B is to follow the West African coast,” emphasize Stéphane and Lorette.

Make it something useful

To get around, the family who travels “light, with 20 kg on their back” will not deny themselves anything: sailboat, on foot, bus… “Like the people on site”.

The family wants to make something useful out of this adventure.

The engineer plans to calculate the carbon footprint throughout the journey to make it restitution and show that it is possible to travel differently.

“We go there to work. As far as I am concerned, this will make it possible to see climate changes elsewhere than in France and the problems linked to water,” adds the engineer.

The portraitist has slipped her notebooks into the bag, which she will fill with drawings and annotations throughout the stages, with a view to editing their story.

Quel budget ?

On the budget side, the couple rented the furnished house (€800 per month) for one year.

“The idea is to do woofing, work on farms…”, underlines Lorette who will also work remotely for a specialist health magazine.

Freelancing will bring a small additional income of €2,000.

Through this experience, the duo wants to raise awareness about the fact that this type of slow and low-carbon travel can also be economical.

“It is estimated that the rentals will pay our costs. If we are aware that this is a way of traveling, we want to show that we can do it with few resources.

The couple has planned a budget of €5,000 to €6,000 for the year.

The family's trip should be followed by the Little Prince's school in La Haye-Fouassière, the establishment in which Camille attends school.

In the main section, the little girl will work on the educational expectations with her parents, on the road.

Discussions are also planned with the class during the trip, in the form of postcards and video clips.

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