Camille Moutinho and Mathis Le Pallier, 28 years old, left Saint-Pol-de-Léon on April 16, 2023 for a bicycle tour of Europe. They returned on Saturday June 22, 2024 after having covered 17,415 km in 432 days (1,156 hours of pedaling precisely).
In 2019, the couple had already completed a five-week cycling trip, linking Mulhouse to Budapest. Camille confides: “I wanted to take a long trip to discover other countries, cycling is a good way to move forward and take the time, it allows you to meet people more easily”. For Mathis, “it’s not luck: we kept room for that, it’s a matter of decisions”. To which Camille adds: “You shouldn’t set limits! »
Camille, IT project manager, and Mathis, project manager in a service company for marina managers, did not give up everything to leave. They kept their home and requested unpaid leave. They crossed 24 countries, used twelve different currencies and visited 13 capitals.
Camille and Mathis had made sure not to be involved with any sponsor to allow themselves to stop the adventure. They recognize a drop in morale at the end of November, in Bulgaria. An obligatory passage. “With a real questioning and after a week spent in Istanbul, we started again on another cycle and we found our energy. »
Hot air balloons in Cappadocia and fjord in Norway
What magical places did they discover? “Cappadocia in Turkey, notably the sight of some 150 hot air balloons at daybreak, we were out of time, like children. It was also the furthest point geographically from us and it was at Christmas time, there was the Bay of Kotor in Montenegro, a Norwegian fjord, “it was dizzying, we felt very small” .
They testify: “Daily life while roaming means learning to live in the uncertainty of the weather but also finding water (4.5 liters per day), eating, finding somewhere to sleep, whether in a tent. (258 nights in total including 156 in bivouac), with a local (78 nights) or in a hotel. “Fatigue is mental, not physical. » When the couple makes a stopover, it’s not about resting: they have to prepare for the rest of the trip, check the equipment, give news to loved ones. They drove three to six hours a day: “It requires concentration, especially when the traffic was dangerous.”
Nice meeting
Faced with difficulties, Camille and Mathis never lost sight of the fact that they were a team “with the same deep objectives”: gaining confidence in the equipment, gaining confidence in bivouac, respecting the budget, discovering culinary specialties, making pretty photos, meet people, have fun on the bike.
They met some great people: Radu, in Romania, who welcomed them for a whole weekend. The French teacher Emin and Memhet, met in a restaurant in Türkiye which hosted them. Sandra and Dejan, in Slovenia… The list is long. “We were welcomed very spontaneously. What stood out to us was the trust in others even if we do not forget that we are privileged by being a heterosexual couple, white and French, for example we did not need to apply for a visa, for no country crossed.” Camille and Mathis will resume their professional activity in September. They would like to share their adventure, give conferences: their journey is similar to an entrepreneurial approach, with management of the unexpected, planning, communication and “knowing how to bounce back”.
