This text is part of the special Pleasures notebook
Thelma and Louise, Into the Wild, Bonnie and Clyde, Easy Rider, Nomadland, On the Road, Volkswagen blues… THE road movies And road novels in which a figure emancipates himself and makes a personal journey over the kilometers are legion. The craze for the vanlife also associates happiness with the road in the collective imagination. While many Quebecers swallow up the province’s asphalt every year — 54% intended to travel to Quebec this summer, according to the Transat Tourism Chair — how can we make the most of what the road can bring us?
“On the road, it’s as if ideas filter naturally and anxiety goes away with the wind,” illustrates Samuel Gauthier. With his partner, Laurence Dufour, he founded Roadloft, which manufactures removable camper conversion kits for vans, SUVs and hatchbacks.
For young entrepreneurs in Quebec, road trips are a necessity. However, for several years, traveling has rhymed with flying away for this couple. Indonesia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Bolivia, Papua New Guinea… The globetrotters were in search of authenticity and a change of scenery.
It was while crisscrossing the roads of Canada in 2016, from Quebec to the Yukon, that their great love affair with asphalt began. They traveled in a van that they converted into a motorhome for the occasion.
After three years of living in their vehicle for eight months a year, and two years of research and development, the kinesiologist and speech therapist that they were left their respective careers to focus on their passion. “The well-being that the road tripthat’s really the initial reason that pushed us to create Roadloft, says Laurence Dufour. We wanted to allow others to experience it like us.”
From nature to wandering
How do you get the most out of a road trip, whether it’s a vanlife or not ?
Moving between corn and potato fields, walking through a forest, following the river, squinting to look at the orange sky at nightfall… The road trip is a way of getting closer to nature, which Laurence and Samuel encourage and seek to simplify through their offer.
“Driving through green spaces, even if it’s to get to a big city like New York, already feels good,” believes Laurence Dufour. She also recommends taking the time to stop and enjoy it fully. No matter which direction you take, there will always be an opportunity to camp, hike, picnic or stroll by a lake. This contact with nature can be beneficial for our mental health, and it has been recognized by several studies to reduce stress and anxiety levels, among other things.
And there’s no need to go to the ends of the earth to feel the benefits of a road trip, continues Laurence Dufour. “Sometimes, we drive just an hour from home for the weekend and come back rested and ready for the work week ahead,” she says.
“Many people travel with a list of places to see and things to do,” adds Samuel Gauthier. “I think that to be able to disconnect, you don’t have to have everything planned out. Otherwise, you’re stuck managing your agenda.”
Clinical psychologist and psychotherapist Charline Janvier agrees. “I believe we need to leave room for the unexpected and be open to what comes our way,” she says, specifying that there is no magic formula. In addition, each person will have a different experience, adds the woman who travels a lot herself and created the Psynomade service, which offers remote consultations to any globetrotter who feels the need.
“I like the word ‘wandering’,” says Charline Janvier, “to describe a posture that can be good to adopt on the road. We can wander around an unknown city or our own neighborhood. It’s about passing through a place without a specific goal, just observing what’s around us. At that moment, we might be a little more present, less in our thoughts. It can help us settle our minds and bring us a form of relaxation.”
The psychologist, however, stresses the danger of putting yourself under pressure to “succeed” in your road trip. “If a person does not manage to disconnect as they would like during their trip, they should not feel guilty about it,” she warns.
With the image that social networks often send us of automobile nomadism, where happiness seems to be at its peak, expectations can be unrealistic and excessive. “A trip is never perfect, without more difficult moments, solitude or anxiety, reminds Mme January. And that in itself can be something a little worrying, because it is destabilizing and there is a loss of bearings.”
“For me, the definition of a road trip “successful is perhaps simply giving yourself the opportunity to take your time,” concludes Samuel Gauthier. Or, as Charles Baudelaire wrote: “True travelers are those who leave for the sake of leaving.”
This content was produced by the Special Publications Team of Dutyrelevant to marketing. The writing of the Duty did not take part in it.