ON THE ROAD TO VACATION | M6 | Zone Interdite

On average, six out of ten French people go on holiday in the summer. During the big departures, 5 million holidaymakers find themselves on the road and mainly on the motorway. Tourists rub shoulders with truck drivers in heavy traffic, where they have to slalom between accidents, traffic jams and drivers. Exceptionally, we were able to film in Lançon-de-Provence, one of the largest rest areas in France. Located on the A7 motorway, It is nicknamed “the highway of the sun”. Restaurateurs, seasonal workers, patrollers, gendarmes and convenience stores… At the time of the summer crossovers, we shared the daily life of all those who watch over the road of holidaymakers.

With their five children, Patrice and Emmanuelle Renkin plan to spend their holidays in Signes, in the south of France. And the journey from Belgium, where they live, is going to be long. Very long. 1100 kilometers, or 11 hours drive in total . A trip they plan over two days, with a stage in Burgundy, halfway. From the last preparations before departure, until their arrival in their holiday home, we followed them throughout their journey… rather lively! Because driving under the heat wave with 5 children on board is not easy. Occupy the 2-year-old, manage disputes between brothers and sisters, avoid traffic jams, or find a restaurant when everything is closed… The Renkin family will experience an unforgettable journey on the road to the holidays!

On its way, the family will stop on the Lançon-de-Provence area. Located on the A7 motorway, it is one of the busiest rest areas in France. During crossover weekends, nearly 15,000 travelers stop there every day. A big challenge for Patrick, the restaurant manager of the area . To best accommodate these “hyperflows” of visitors, Patrick checks that no grain of sand comes to stop the machine. He monitors and controls everything. And do not hesitate to get your hands dirty during the shooting, alongside the 180 employees of the area. Many of them are seasonal, such as Cheyma. Student in international trade, the young woman decided to work all summer in one of the four restaurants in the Lançon-de-Provence area to make money and rent an apartment in September. And she may discover the world of catering, she does not have the right to make mistakes and will have to keep up.

Like thousands of other vacationers, the Renkin family will also find themselves stuck in traffic jams. To improve traffic flow and rescue motorists, a whole team of men and women is constantly watching over the Orange checkpoint. This security PC controls all the “guardian angels” of the highway, from gendarmes to convenience stores, including patrollers. Hervé is one of them. One of its missions: to pick up lost objects on the tracks to avoid collisions. Regularly, he recovers roof boxes or surfboards poorly secured by their owners. A dangerous job, which recently claimed the life of one of his colleagues.

In the event of an accident, Hervé then passes the baton to the convenience stores. In the Magnan family, we practice this profession from father to son. At 23 years old, Mathieu works alongside his father, Marc, to help holidaymakers. In the summer, the young man can do up to 10 interventions a day and has only 30 minutes each time to carry out his mission. Because on the road, no one is immune to an unpleasant surprise: puncture, engine failure, or even collision with other vehicles.

Preventing accidents is also the role of the gendarmes. In Gironde, Antoine and Geoffrey are part of the Mios intervention brigade. Drinking and driving, speeding or untimely stops on the emergency lane, the two gendarmes face daily to motorists, in a hurry to arrive at their holiday destination, who do not always measure the dangerousness of their behavior on the road.

Dangers also faced by truck drivers. At 53, Alice has been driving trucks for twenty years. To deliver her goods, she has a limited time. And she particularly dreads journeys during crossover weekends, synonymous with traffic jams and slowdowns. Its pet peeve is holidaymakers and especially motorhomes, which regularly occupy the spaces reserved for truck drivers on motorway areas.