FRANCE: Urban acrobats from Paris setting out on foot on the infamous rally Paris-Dakar route

Two urban acrobats leave for Dakar on foot. They will be unaided and will travel over 6000 kilometres. Two years ago, Raimundo Querido worked in a bank in a poor Paris suburb. Now he earns a living jumping off roofs, climbing up towering walls and somersaulting into flowerbeds. Starring in commercials or working as a stunt double for cinema actors, the 26-year-old has become a celebrity in the ethnically diverse housing estates north of Paris, hit by riots two years ago. Querido and his stunt partner Daniel Girondeaud are "urban acrobats" who make a living from "Parkour" -- "the art of moving" made popular by Frenchman David Belle more than a decade ago and now a widely practised extreme sport worldwide. They started 9 years ago when the discipline was still unknown. "When we see an obstacle, instead of walking around it we go over it," explains Daniel Girondeaud how he approaches this art. "It's a way of thinking, it's about going back to the human's origins which were to move on all fours, climb up trees, to escape from a dangerous situation, to go and get food from places hard to access. So really, the human being has forgotten where it came from and that before all this technology which allows us to travel more easily, the human being had a body used for moving around. Today, the humans are becoming more and more lazy; we try not to regress and to keep our feet on the ground so as not to forget where we come from." Seeking a new challenge, the pair set off on Thursday (September 20) to trace the over 6,000 km-long (4,000 mile-long) route of the Paris-Dakar car rally -- but they will travel on foot. The trip takes them through France and Spain, a hop across the sea to Morocco and then roughly down the west African coast. Querido says this trip is another obstacle to overcome: "It's the whole psychological thing, we are going from point A to point B, we're not going to do somersaults, but we will show that the psychological side of it is very important, because that will be fundamental. It's over a long period of time, 6500 kilometres, 5 to 6 months, we'll have to be strong psychologically, knowing that we won't benefit of any assistance, we'll be sleeping where we can, at people's homes, we'll have to eat where we can, it'll be tough," said Raimundo Querido. Inspired by athletes, from prehistoric hunters to martial arts experts, Parkour is about getting from A to B as fast and directly as you can, using just physical strength and dexterity to overcome obstacles such as walls, buildings or fences. In the 2006 remake of the film Casino Royale, James Bond played by Daniel Craig chases a terrorist played by a Parkour artist across a construction site. The sport has featured in numerous advertisements and video games. Querido and his friends from the group "Adrenaline" first tried out tentative somersaults and jumps in the concrete maze of Gennevilliers's housing towers, but now travel as far as Hong Kong and Chile to star in films and advertising clips. Querido and Girondeaud plan to walk 50 km (30 miles) a day and reach the Cape Verde Islands by February. They might be tempted to somersault off the occasional dune but expect largely to walk straight ahead without too many acrobatics and will record the journey online at www.paris-dakar-a-pied.skyrock.com. Unemployment and discrimination remain major problems for youngsters in Querido's neighbourhood, many of whom are descended from immigrants from north and west Africa. Unemployment in Paris suburbs often runs as high as 40 or 50 percent. In 2005, youngsters angry about discrimination and unemployment burned thousands of cars in run-down districts outside big cities. But Querido and his friends say they do not want to be seen as the "kids from the rotten neighbourhood". "Maybe we'll go and see young people and tell them about our adventure. To give out a bit. We don't really want to give the image of the youth from a poor suburb who are succeeding but we can ignore it; we come from the rough suburbs, we grew up in a sensitive part of the Paris suburb. People will say 'look what two people of that age can do'." During his election campaign earlier this year, French president Nicolas Sarkozy promised more help for jobseekers in poor neighbourhoods. The law-and-order hardliner surprised many French by naming as secretary of state for towns Fadela Amara -- an activist of Algerian origin who made her name as founder of an association for girls in the suburbs. Another reason for the trip is for Querido to show his French stunt partner his birthplace. Girondeaud said he was looking forward to the role reversal, although he was already used to being the odd one out in Gennevilliers.

ITN Source | September 24, 2007

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