While many French people are preparing to take a carpool trip during the Christmas holidays, in particular because of the galleys of trains,
20 Minutes
has collected testimonies of great stories on the roads.
Because a journey with strangers can turn out to be a very beautiful human experience.
Exciting discussions, collective laughter, friendly or sentimental love at first sight...
If some wanted the story to last beyond the journey, others prefer the magic of the moment and not to force fate.
“Take a trip together, both on the roads, in your car, both of us will be fine.
" We know the song.
Those who are about to make a carpooling trip during these Christmas holidays will perhaps have a real good time: a memorable discussion, a collective giggle, an immediate complicity with unknown people, even a thunderbolt on the back seat of a Polo.
While some travelers, barely installed in the cabin, take a snooze, the majority of passengers have only one desire: to chat with strangers.
Moreover, according to a study by Blablacar*, 96% of carpoolers say they have had enriching exchanges during their previous journeys.
Main topics covered: hobbies and leisure, personal life, travel, culture (music, theatre, etc.) and current events.
Eric, who responded to our call for witnesses, is one of those who did not see the kilometers go by: “My best carpool was a trip from Paris to Roubaix.
It was a small itinerant theater group, a little outside of societal standards.
The van in which I took place was like their second home.
They denounced the consumer society in their plays.
I really liked their ideals.
I talked a lot with them and the trip went by very quickly.
»
“We sang Celine Dion for the whole trip”
Sometimes the conversations even take a much deeper turn.
More than half of the carpoolers surveyed by BlaBlaCar claim to have succeeded in taking a step back from a situation (56%) thanks to a discussion on the road or having received good life advice (61%).
And one in five say they've told their carpoolers things they've never told anyone before.
Moments of emotion that also arise from encounters that we would not have had in our daily life.
Olivier thus traveled with a blind elderly lady, between Paris and Angoulême: “I discovered her disability when picking her up, which caused me a moment of anxiety.
But the trip with this woman, who had a rich life, was exciting.
It's very surprising to talk for four hours with a blind person in a small space.
We are only connected by speech.
And she suddenly frees herself.
»
Carpooling favors improbable encounters, the fact of traveling with such different people sometimes generates very funny situations.
Céline always laughs at the mention of what remains her best memory of carpooling: “It was a Besançon-Paris trip with a young soldier.
We sang Celine Dion's songs the whole trip.
I must admit that he knew the lyrics better than I did.
I had a surprising and wonderful time!
".
“I had red cheeks and my head was wrapped in wrapping paper”
For her part, Marion experienced a surreal New Year's Eve on December 24 on the road, as she traveled to Bordeaux from Paris.
“I got in the car of a family with three children.
As soon as we arrived at the Saint-Arnoult toll, it started to snow.
Waze indicated 4 hours more driving.
The eldest was ill, the little one was nagging me to read The
Little Mermaid
to her and the youngest wanted to open his presents.
The total mess!
The parents were on edge.
The children, tired, began to cry.
The father entrusted the driving to his wife and said to me: "I had prepared a cocktail for the aperitif, we throw a little? ".
»
No refusal from Marion, who drank with her sidekick.
“The atmosphere relaxed even more when the father, a bit drunk, swung to his three kids: “Come on, open your presents! Anyway, Christmas is finished”.
At 8 p.m., my cheeks were flushed and my head wrapped in wrapping paper, stuck between the little one who wanted to build her Playmobil world and the big one who had a board game making a monstrous noise.
I arrived at my parents' house at 10 p.m.
The father was completely cooked and so was I.
One of the two little ones started crying and gave me a Playmobil.
The next day, I realized that I forgot my gifts in the family car.
An experience she remembers with a laugh five years later.
“We share part of our history with strangers”
These fleeting moments sometimes make you want to see each other again.
Some friendships or love stories are also born during carpooling.
Eric thus saw again the merry theater company which had conveyed it.
"We had a party and I didn't come home alone.
The contact continued: five years after our meeting, we were still eating fries together in Lille.
Time, everyone's struggles, the Covid and moves have meant that contact has been lost.
»
Sylvain, too, wanted to see the beautiful traveler he had transported from Lyon to Nîmes: “We hit it off immediately and I offered to meet him at the fast food restaurant for lunch.
Today we are married with a baby on the way.
A love story worthy of the greatest romantic films!
But some prefer the magic of the moment to the hope of a more lasting relationship, which always runs the risk of being disappointed.
"I never keep in touch with my 'covoits'.
A trip is a unique moment when we share part of our history with strangers, without mask or restraint.
But it works on the condition of never seeing each other again, ”says Olivier.
Lasting or not, these beautiful stories often leave lasting memories, and that's what counts.
Company
Noël: “Of course I'm going to spoil Poupette!
“… They are going to give a gift to their pet
Company
Christmas: They prefer to spend New Year's Eve with their friends rather than their family
* The study was conducted by the strategy consulting firm Le BIPE in September/October 2016 among 4,733 BlaBlaCar members, spread over 9 countries (Germany, Spain, France, Great Britain, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Russia, Ukraine).
Company
Carpooling
Testimony
Your life, your opinion
School vacation
Christmas