The doors open one after the other and tears rarely remain at the threshold of the houses.
Since leaving Mondeville, in Calvados, on February 24, by bike, Aude Behague and Solveig de la Hougue have been relaying their story every day.
That of a mourning that the pedal strokes try to appease with always the same story of courage and resilience posed on their luggage racks.
This Wednesday, it is in a beautiful house in Angers that the couple is received.
Their hosts only know of them the terrible reason for their coming.
Once again, the two women take the time to recount the intimate drama that forces them to pedal so as not to fall.
The tone is soft but the words terrible.
"We undertook a tour of France in 69 stages, to pay tribute to our son Maël, who died at 18 months of a lightning leukemia", narrates Solveig.
“It's a therapeutic journey,” adds his wife.
From the start, we only meet beautiful people who allow us to bring Maël to life in their eyes.
"
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Bruno and Brigitte listen to the stages.
The child who did not feel well after a vaccine, the atrocious discovery of a rare form of leukemia, the choice to put their respective jobs as PE teacher and photographer on hiatus, to treat Maël.
Then this pot filled by relatives to allow them to devote themselves to their fight.
It is certain that there will be a bone marrow transplant one day, after the recovery, they will go and thank everyone ...
Confront anger and unspeakable pain
Then the voices weaken and the eyes stare at the ground.
The child's condition suddenly worsened and his death on November 16.
And this choice, rather quick in fact, to face the anger and the unspeakable pain by leaving to travel through France until May 22 in order to thank all the donors of the pot.
In her sofa, Brigitte is overwhelmed by emotion.
She suffers from multiple sclerosis and can only move her right arm. “You touch me with your gratitude.
In our adversity, seeing another form of resilience can only animate us.
This time, it is Aude and Solveig who are affected by this dismissal of the sentence.
They show five photo books of their child and offer a sticker “In the saddle with Maël” named after the Facebook page opened to tell about their tour of France after the suffering.
But we must already leave.
Today's stage takes them to the foot of the Château de Saumur.
Like every morning, they get on their bikes with photos of Maël and his blanket on Solveig's handlebars.
"Emotions are different every day"
The two women admit that they also cycle fearing the last day.
The one where you will have to put the bikes.
In the meantime, they make their way on the magnificent banks of the Loire.
Unexpected testimonies pass like the kilometers.
On the Internet but also live.
Like this man who contacted them to symbolically ride ten km with them.
Or this Nantes bike repair workshop which offered them the opportunity to specially open its doors to overhaul their bikes.
"Strangers also tell us that they have lost a child and that our story carries them," continues Solveig.
We are just looking for a meaning.
We can pedal as much as we want, Maël will not come back.
But we are moving forward.
"
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In Saumur, they find themselves housed in a gîte “École Buissonnière”.
A coincidence but this name, after all, wraps well around their story: learning to accept the unacceptable by walking away into nature.
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They know that they will narrate their intimate drama the next day and the day after.
To their surprise, this endless day never tires of them.
On the contrary.
“In fact, emotions are different every day,” Solveig observes.
We never tell with the same words.
And each time, in the benevolent gaze of the people, it is as if Maël was still alive.
Maybe that's what we came for.
"
On the sides of the road, Solveig and Aude are easy to recognize.
They are two on the asphalt or the sand to pedal for three.
“So that Maël is known.
"
