BICLOU, EPISODE 10-A slew of cyclists in dodeline colored lycra to hoist themselves at the top of a smooth bitumen ramp. In the distance, the gleaming Airbuses of Air France patiently wait to be able to fly again.
“It's still just as magical. It is something that we will not do much in a lifetime, in my opinion, ”enthuses Romain Bauvillard, his eyes fixed on the vessel of raw concrete standing a few meters away. The tall blond in turn dashes on his racing bike before being engulfed by the thick arches of the building.
In front of this escapade of cyclists, Terminal 1 of Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport is plunged into an unusual silence. Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the tenth global airport has been dozing, halted by health restrictions. Terminals 1 and 3 are completely closed, while terminal 2 only works very partially. In May, only 6,000 daily travelers flocked there, against 200,000 on average in normal times.
"We had to find the roads"
Around the airport, the expressways are emptied of their incessant ballet of shuttles, taxis and utilities. A breach has opened. The bitumen was offered to anyone who wanted to heat it first. Romain Bauvillard rushed into it, almost inadvertently, when he had already tried it long before confinement. "Basically, we just wanted to go down the slopes and we got lost."
Never mind, barely deconfigured, this enthusiast piled up around a few friends, with the certainty that a path to the tarmac must be hiding somewhere: “I knew we could access it by the cargo area. So afterwards, we had to find the roads ”.
Photo session in front of the Concorde
Lovers of diverted routes and inventor of original maps, Romain Bauvillard is used to opening up diverted routes for his companions. In cycling jargon, these pioneers are called "mappers".
This enthusiast ends up composing a route to join this mille-feuilles of motorways and access ramps. Against all expectations, it slides to the terminals, usually inaccessible to bikes.
Thanks to the Strava app, the route is emulated in the cycling world. In a few weeks, the unusual trip to Roissy takes on the air of decontainment.
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Groups take turns almost daily around essential stages, such as passing in front of a Concorde relic. "This is the photo to take, it is proof that you have been to Roissy," Romain was moved. That evening, the ten or so enthusiasts who left the Parc de la Villette in Paris are no exception to this tradition. Adrienne Estrada, another regular at outings to Roissy, improvises as a peloton photographer, a few meters from the retired supersonic.
We rode a bike from Paris to the almost closed Roissy airport: "It's historic"
"There is an almost scary side to it"
The escapees take another break at the top of Terminal 1. The drop-off becomes, for a few minutes, an unexpected observation post, licked by the last rays of twilight.
"A fox, a fox", Max breathes, in his fluorescent outfit. A few meters below, the mammal progresses slowly, harassed by a group of noisy magpies. Just behind, a handful of stopped Air France planes and a few baggage carts left to rest. "We are all alone. We are alone in the world. It's like in zombie movies, "Roman philosopher.
"As much at the beginning, it's funny, [we say to ourselves]:" hold on to nobody ". And then "we are good on a bike, they piss us off with their planes, their cars", on the other hand, after a while there is an almost scary side ", nuance Pierre Malherbet, road partner from the start .
But this surreal parenthesis may well close over the weeks. The access ramps to Terminal 2 are filling up more and more dangerously with buses launched at high speed. Cyclists will soon no longer have a place in this temple of the internal combustion engine.
"We feel that the activity is resuming and that it is the right time to enjoy it, to have fun, before it regains its momentum, its crazy speed and where we will find cars everywhere and planes in shambles “, Says Romain.