On this February morning, Tarik Mazouz, 26, is far from looking like a Pekin Express candidate. He comes out of the cold room of the Le Borvo company in Chemilly-sur-Yonne, mask, apron and charlotte on his head. ” I have been working here for seven years, I deal with the preparation of smoked salmon sous-vide “says Tarik. He was at work when his phone rang last June to let him know that he was going to participate in the program Beijing Express: ” I was working so I didn’t see the call, but when I went on break I had a message on my answering machine. It was M6 and they told me it was good, we were taken to Beijing Express “. Tarik still has stars in his eyes when he thinks back to that moment. Because it was far from obvious, the selection is draconian. Eight pairs are selected out of 90,000 candidates. For the young man, it was a dream come true. ” I’ve been watching the show forever, I really wanted to be on it, so I thought about doing it with my little cousin, I waited until he was 18 and off we went “, he explains. Ahmed El Kadaoui is tempted. ” With Ahmed, we are very close. I know that if I need a hand, even if it’s two in the morning, I call him, he comes to help me, there is no problem “.
“Chat and resourcefulness are the keys to success”
And the duo from Migen is counting on their resourcefulness and joie de vivre to go through the stages of this extraordinary adventure one by one. ” Go to the puzzle, to the quagmire, we like that. We are very, very resourceful “says Tarik. Indispensable ingredients in this challenge made of discoveries and hitchhiking. Their only budget is one euro per day and per person to reach the point of arrival which is Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates for this fifteenth season.
“Until the last second, we did not know where we were going to land”
Once selected, the two Icaunnais do not know where the filming will take place. At the end of August they board a plane without knowing their destination. “At Roissy Charles de Gaulle, we didn’t know where we were going. Until the last second, we didn’t know where we were going to land it will be Bishkek, in Kyrgyzstan, in Central Asia. ” Even on a map, I couldn’t really locate Kyrgyzstan. In addition we arrived at night, and when we see the locals, they all have slanted eyes », explains Tarik, before continuing « from there, you tell yourself that we are very far from the family, thousands of kilometers from France, and that … Beijing Express, it starts now “.
Ahmed and Tarik then receive their red backpack and embark on the Kyrgyz steppes ” There is a competition. We are not going there to be tourists. When we removed the blindfolds, we scrutinized the other pairs, it’s normal “, confesses Tarik. The pair promised to try to do the maximum, to go as far as possible. ” For the family, the neighborhood, the colleagues, they are behind us, we cannot disappoint them “, explains Tarik.
Subject to a confidentiality clause, the two cousins cannot reveal how far they have come on the show, if they discovered Uzbekistan, Petra and Jordan before seeing, perhaps, Dubai, the venue for the final. Corn Tarik especially remembers exceptional meetings in Kyrgyzstan : “ We slept with locals. They gave us everything when they had nothing. The table was full. They don’t have any money but they still bought us coke. Just for us. It’s stuff, we say “wow”! It stays in the heart “.