the tiny mop of France 5

You had to think about it. In this new France 5 program, which wavers between an eco-show and an escape magazine, two traveling companions place 25 kg of stones in their hiking bag. A weight which should symbolize the carbon emissions of a French person per day. The game (which is not really funny) will consist of the duo, composed of the actor of Caesar Wagner Gil Alma and Benoît Joubert, known as Ben, comedian and actor, to borrow green means of transport to save CO2₂. And be able to remove the equivalent in stones. What television wouldn't invent…

Here is the duo at the foot of the Carcassonne fortress. Ben drags his people. Gil, on the other hand, shows great enthusiasm, which will never be dampened. They leave on horseback in the direction of a wine grower. Which takes them by car (horror!) to the Cabrespine chasm, superb with its stalagmites and its 145 meters of depth. There, the duo shares a few thrills in the face of emptiness and a meal made entirely of local products. They learn that the place serves as a cellar for bottles of wine as well as chili pepper, which becomes milder in this atypical environment. This kind of rather interesting information, unfortunately, only trickles into the magazine.

We console ourselves a little thanks to the spectacle of Ben, a good city dweller bothered by the countryside and any prospect of physical effort. In short, a man like any other… His sidekick doesn't let him get away with anything. Since he ate foie gras the day before in the cave, he will have to add four stones to his bag. Gil Alma escapes punishment: he is a vegetarian. He will be sanctioned later, by having to content himself with observing the tempting beauty of the sausages prepared by Jean-Baptiste Marty, crowned cassoulet world champion at the start of the year. They brown as desired.

An artificial spring

Those who love the planet will take their time. The hills roll by gently in “25 kg: 3 days to empty your bag”. Fruit trees follow the Canal du Midi, whose tranquility is prized by the locals. More and more of them, we learn, are renting boats to sail from Toulouse to Sète. The duo could therefore not escape it. For their last days in Cathar Country, they choose to climb on a handcar, which gives rise to some funny sequences. From the Puilaurens castle, nestled on a rocky outcrop, the two friends then admire the path traveled and celebrate their adventure.

If the objective of “25 kg: 3 days to empty your bag” – raising awareness of everyday pollution – lacks neither legitimacy nor interest, the principle of this program which sought to be fun is perplexing. The spring of the bag of stones turns out to be very light. And a little artificial. It lacks a breath of adventure. Concentrated on his mission, the friendly Gil Alma keeps up the counters until the end: « It's 150 grams, a conversation on the phone via videoconference »he explains to his companion in misfortune. And how much is a television show?