Make no mistake: the Relais des Forges service station, at the exit of Montereau-Fault-Yonne (Seine-et-Marne), may be on the Route de Paris, the capital is everything the same goes for an hour and a half journey - more than two at rush hour.
Vast expanses of fields barred by a horizon of high voltage lines, no automatic machines: here, we pay the old fashioned way, from a cash register behind which Alex Kaplan - we call him Ali, Ali Baba - sells lighters, pacifiers and window cleaner.
He occasionally serves espresso or lemon teas.
We stop there briefly before reaching Paris, or more often Melun, sometimes Créteil if we push a little further.
This Thursday morning, the gasoline break is bitter: 1.77 euros for the Sans-Plomb 95.
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In recent weeks, gasoline prices have skyrocketed.
13 cents more on average over two months.
The record was broken the week of October 5 for diesel to reach 1.55 euros.
So much so that Jean Castex promised Thursday evening October 21 an inflation compensation of 100 euros for all French people who earn less than 2000 euros net per month.
The brands are trying to contain the bitterness of consumers: Carrefour offers vouchers of 5 euros for a full, when Leclerc now sells fuel at cost price.
“And you, Ali, are you giving me a discount?”
Says Jean-Philippe, a building contractor, who has just landed in the station.
“You know very well that Total sets the prices,”
Ali sighs.
Indirectly, it is all life that suffers!
Nadia, 40 years old
So, motorists extend the change, additional cents which are so many sacrifices, calculated silently during the checkout.
“
Less pleasures,
” laments Nadia.
A caregiver in Melun, this 40-year-old mother cannot afford the vagaries of the train.
So she takes her car and puts gasoline
"per 20 euro note"
, because
"It stings less like that", she
slips
.
The blue ticket allowed him to last two weeks, against just a few days today.
A price increase that costs her the little ones "next door", the weekly brushing she has to give up, or that pretty bag seen on the market
.
"
Some think it's just a few cents per liter.
But at the end of the month, that represents several tens of euros,
“says Nadia.
The price of gasoline is increasing and people now think twice before taking the car.
Sunday picnics on the banks of the Seine, fifteen kilometers away, are they really necessary, just like outings with friends in Paris?
“
We tell ourselves that it is better to keep gasoline to go to work.
Indirectly, it's all life that suffers
”, regrets Nadia.
Parades and renunciations
At ten-thirty sharp, arrives Jean-Serge. Jean-Serge is a former parachutist in the Air Force, who, at 92, has "
never set foot in a bar
". So he comes to spend his days here watching the ballet of motorists who have somewhere to go. “
Prices can go up, people will be forced to refuel,
” he says. “
You have to go to work!
»
,
Confirms Sutiu. He lives in the neighboring town of Valence-en-Brie. To reach Melun by public transport, he would have to take bus 46, the one which “
stops in all the small villages for more than an hour.
»Small towns pass through the network of public transport.
For many inhabitants of Seine-et-Marne, the car is essential.
Sutiu therefore cashed without flinching his 78.27 euros for about fifty liters.
Just like Mickaël, 34, who jokes at the cash register by paying his full tank and a lollipop.
And too bad if it is necessary to reach the 500 euros of overdraft on his account
.
“
I earn a good living: 1900 euros.
But when you take away the rent, insurance and electricity, there's not much left
, he sighs.
I refuse to restrict myself
”.
So, go for the new pair of sneakers, and the holidays in Brittany with his two daughters: “
Out of season, it's cheaper.
"
People are in trouble
Alex Kaplan, owner of Relais des Forges
Outside, Medhi roars his "
little gem
": an Audi RS3 - which has the gift of annoying Jean-Serge.
His car would cost him 80 euros of gasoline daily.
The young man therefore decided not to drive it every day.
The rest of the time, he hitchhikes to join his friends in Melun or Fontainebleau.
And then there's Robert, who extracts two two-euro coins from his leather jacket for a few drops of gasoline in his moped.
“
People are struggling.
More and more people pay me with coins, which rarely happened before
, says Alex Kaplan.
The French are angry.
You have to understand them, too.
"
Read alsoPrice of gasoline: Pécresse evokes the track of the kilometric package
On October 12, 2018, the particularly high price of diesel gave rise to the yellow vests movement.
Three years later, could the prices displayed at the Relais de la Forge arouse the anger of the protesters, who once met at the neighboring A5 tollbooth?
“
I don't really believe it anymore.
What have our days and nights out been used for?
», Sighs Stéphane.
Gas pistol in hand, the former protester points to the place where he now puts his fluorescent vest: the trunk of his car.
Ready, however, to take it out
"if necessary".
