When we talk about hitchhiking, especially as a woman, we often : hear about crying out remarks about the dangerousness of it. Célia heard a lot from her friends when she announced them she planned to cross over France this way. Only 21 years old, this young adventurer chose to make this trip to create a podcast named ‘placarde ta colère’ (post your anger) about the movement of feminist collage “wrongly judged”. It was the Zellidja association which gave her this opportunity. This association offers a travel grant to young people between 16 and 20 so that they go for at least a month with a study project.
“One of the particularities of Zellidja is we have to go alone. It allows you to go out of your comfort zone and to face many challenges”, she explains. I had already made a trip to Norway and I really wanted to do another one somewhere else”.
Firstly wishing to talk about femens in Ukraine, the current circumstances push her to change her mind. That is when she decided to consider feminism collages.
“I wanted to stay on the feminism topic that really matters to me. And I found it important to give visibility to the gluer as well”.
The subject has finally been chosen, she gives approximate dates of her trip to the association, and starts to contact the different groups of gluers to meet them.
In order to make some savings, she begins what we call couchsurfing*, which consists in sleeping in a local house for free, and prefers hitchhiking to travel.
“The hardest part was to hitchhike at the beginning because it was my first time. I was wondering if there were any ways to do well or if people would stop. I was really stressed, and I even informed myself how to defend in case something was happening to me. I couldn’t stop watching testimonies of women who did it”, she laughs, “But it always went well”.
Célia has already gone through five different cities : Dijon, Annecy, Clermont-Ferrand, Nîmes, and is now in Strasbourg where she meets each of the gluers that are there.
“The meetings with the gluers are made in public. I interview them in groups, it’s always more reassuring for them”, she explains, “Once entered in their intimity, we can see how welcoming it is”.
Her next destination? The collective of gluers of Germanys. At least, that is what she's hoping for. Her messages are not answered for now or the people she is speaking to changes their mind every time.
But whatever the difficulties she has to deal with, the journey she is taking actions in only has positive aspects.
“Lately I was in Nîmes and I really had difficulties finding new contacts and feminist associations”, she begins, a big smile on her lips, “Like in any cities I had visited, I went around every solidary cafe and alternative places and I stopped in Anaïs cafe. I met over there two sweet volunteers whom I created a quick bond with. They immediately wanted to help me when I told them I wanted to interview women in the street. They even gave me interesting contacts!”
She let go a light laugh remembering her benefactresses.
“The spontaneity to help me really got to me”.
Her excursion is not finished yet, although our dear traveler feels grown up. The experiences she lived during the days before let her understand her own abilities.
“I was maybe too centered on what I already knew, and I understood that there were many things I didn’t know yet”
She says that it is more than knowledge but new ways to live she discerns. Because if there is one thing she learned compared to her other trips, it is that she is well dependent on other people.
“If the people that host me have a copy of their keys, it is more convenient, while sometimes I have to stay to 8am to 6pm outside because the person’s not here. I am not used to living with others, I am more of the kind to enjoy my moment of aloneness”, she confesses. “In those situations I have to adapt to others”.
Outgoing a ‘BTS commerce international’ (BTEC HND of international trade), Célia doesn’t know yet what to do with her life at the end of this chapter. What is sure is that her adventure won’t stop there : she plans to participate to the 4l Trophy* an orientation rally to do in a 4L and that, until the Sahara’s dunes. And wherever she goes after that, her experiences always were good to her, in a way or another.
Looking for the right word for an instant, she ends by saying : “Well surrounding ourselves is the hardest thing, but once done, the first step to your project will seem much less difficult as expected. Because these people are there to cheer you up and push you up”.
Interview de Célia Lépine, 21 ans
Instagram : lia_en_vadrouille
2* Les colleureuses est un mot en écriture inclusive désignant les colleurs et colleuses qui s’occupent des collages féministes.