Luck was on Jeremy and Fanny’s side. The semi-final of Beijing Express, in the land of the golden eagle broadcast this Thursday on M6 ended with the elimination of Ahmed and Tarik. The “joking cousins” came across the eliminatory envelope after the “dreaming couple” drew lots for the other two, non-elimination envelopes. A crushing blow for the two boys aged 18 and 25 who have not lost their good humor. « If there is a Alternative route to do, we are the first on the starting line! they hope. 20 minutes comes back with them on their journey.
Before the opening of the black envelopes, what state of mind were you in?
Ahmad: Honestly, I was confident. I figured it wasn’t for us. We gave ourselves, we made a mistake in the last race, for me, we were not going to stop there.
Tariq: I didn’t think the eliminatory black envelope would be for us. We managed the first two races well. Fanny and Jérémy looked jaded, it’s borderline if they didn’t give up. I wasn’t calm, but I didn’t see us leaving.
AT. : When Fanny opened the first envelope which indicated “not eliminatory”, we said to ourselves that we only had one chance in two left. When she opened the second, « non-eliminatory » also, we were immediately disgusted.
T.: After all, it’s a game, there has to be a winner and a loser. But we saw each other in the final with the Belgian brothers.
Did you think you would go this far when you started the adventure?
AT. : In the first episode, we did not think of going to the final. Our goal was never to come last. We moved forward by feeling.
T.: We took the steps one after the other. We never said we would go to the semi-finals.
After your elimination, you told Stéphane Rotenberg that your best memory of the adventure was your journey in a trailer with sheep. Several months after shooting, is that still your best memory?
AT. : I would say yes. It was a magnificent journey because we experienced spring, summer, autumn and winter at the same time.
T.: On TV, you don’t see all that.
AT. : There was the rain, then the sun, the snow… It was magnificent. But in terms of good times, today I also think of the Wadi Rum desert, it was amazing.
T.: My most beautiful memory is Jordan, whether it’s the people, the landscapes… Beijing Express made us want to go back. We still have a lot to discover. We can say that this is the beginning of a story.
Tarik, you said that your view of Ahmed had changed, that you no longer saw him as a child, an adolescent… since your return, has your impression been confirmed?
T.: This is largely confirmed. He’s always been my little cousin, but since we did the adventure, he’s flourished in everything. It made him open his eyes to everyday life, to the fact that you should never give up… It made him mature.
AT. : I discovered abilities that I didn’t know existed. On the mountain trek, I found myself surprisingly patient, for example.
You are presented as the “joking cousins”, but we haven’t really seen you making jokes… Is it a legend or were there pranks cut during the editing?
T.: (Laughing) You have to know something: in all our steps to make Beijing Express we had described each other as “adventurer cousins”. I think when they saw the first stage, they said to themselves: “They are not adventurous at all! (He bursts out laughing) So, I think that since we laugh a lot, they presented us as pranksters to stay on the same theme.
AT. : The joy of living, what.