Arnaud and Pierre-Louis, during the filming of the 4th stage of Beijing Express, in September 2020. -

Patrick ROBERT / M6

  • The fourth episode of the new season of

    Beijing Express

    airs this Tuesday at 9:05 p.m. on M6.

  • This fourth stage is that of the resumption of the race in Greece after a hiatus of several months due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the containment and the closure of borders and air spaces.

  • Pierre-Louis and Jonathan, two of the candidates for this season, tell

    20 Minutes

    how they experienced the stoppage and resumption of filming.

And suddenly, the Covid-19 got in the way of the

Beijing Express

.

In March 2020, the third episode of M6's game is just boxed in Uganda when Emmanuel Macron announces the closure of borders and airspace.

Repatriation must be organized as a matter of urgency.

Astonishment falls on the candidates.

“We had just arrived in Ethiopia.

It was the day before the start of the fourth stage.

The production told us that the shooting had to be interrupted, remembers

20 Minutes

Pierre-Louis, one of the two "party brothers".

We experienced it as a shock, like a drama.

"" It was cataclysmic, supports the Northerner Jonathan, launched in the race alongside his wife Aurore.

Everything collapsed, we were living a dream.

We've been in a bubble for two weeks, it's like landing on a new planet.

"

The pairs then become aware of the scale of the pandemic and its consequences.

“When we got back, it looked like there was a war, everything was closed, everything was empty,” Belgians Jenny and Crisoula tell us.

For them, however, the competition was over since the third stage ended with their elimination.

But for the other duos who could still hope to see the adventure through to the end, anguish arose: what if they had done all this for nothing?

What if what had been shot ended up in the trash?

Anxiety exorcised on WhatsApp

“We didn't know if we were going to be able to start again, but the production never told us that the shooting was definitively stopped,” continues Pierre-Louis.

During confinement and during the weeks that followed, the candidates keep in touch via a common discussion loop on WhatsApp.

“It allowed us to exorcise our anxieties, to give news.

We were talking about potential windows of fire.

We needed to keep that thread, ”Jonathan slips us, speaking of the“ unfinished taste ”that accompanied them then.

Mid-July, end of the wait: the pairs are informed that the race can resume in September on another route.

Goodbye "the red earth road" passing through Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates, make way for "the road of three continents", in the direction of Greece and Turkey.

The “euphoria” aroused by this announcement is followed by “the fear of catching the Covid and not being able to leave”, continues Jonathan.

All and all had to be released again for the remaining four weeks of filming.

“Our employers have been understanding.

My people knew how determined I was to live this adventure and that I could have resigned, without hesitation, to do

Beijing Express,

 ”assures the Northerner who manages a grouping of four temping agencies.

Pierre-Louis, a liberal physiotherapist, did not have too much trouble finding a replacement and his brother Arnaud, a student, was not due to return to college before the end of September.

Hitchhiking was "a real pain"

It is in the famous Greek city of Olympia that the kickoff of the fourth stage - broadcast Tuesday evening on M6 - is given.

Candidates must adapt to the health protocol and resume the race masked, with the instruction not to board vehicles carrying no other passenger.

“It limited the possibilities and motorists were worried about hitchhiking two people.

it was a real pain ”, sums up Jonathan.

Pierre-Louis had prepared to drool over it: “We knew it was going to be much harder, but everyone was in the same boat anyway.

As the host Stéphane Rotenberg says, “in such a context, when someone helps you and agrees to give you food and shelter, it seems incredible.

"

Rest

assured: even bathed in hydroalcoholic gel,

Beijing Express

remains a human experience.

Television

Crisoula and Jenny have "no teeth against Rose-Marie and Cinzia"

Television

Behind the scenes of the chaotic filming of "Beijing Express" in the midst of a pandemic

  • Covid 19

  • Coronavirus

  • M6

  • Television

  • Beijing Express