About

Adventure rather than settled vacations, spontaneity rather than organized travel, authenticity rather than a beach and a hotel… that’s our state of mind whenever we (Nicolas, Lou and Diane) have a bit of free time. Since 2021, we’ve been setting off with participants to discover new territories and their inhabitants.

Who are we?

Nicolas Burger

R&D engineer, Optimistik

Lou Grimal

Sustainability researcher, EUt+

Diane Pacaud

IT engineer, IPGP

The origins of the project

2022 & 2023

First season

After a successful first edition in Haute-Marne, it’s time to share the experience. Our first videos are being released this year and the feedback we’ve received has made us want to continue.

2021

Pilot in Yonne

Lots of good ideas, but now it’s time to put them to the test: is it easy to sleep in a local home, meet open-minded people and discover the riches of a region with Portraits 2 Passages?
The answer is a resounding yes, after a pilot in the Yonne.

2020

Sustainability and the environment

A year ago, Lou began a PhD on our relationship with computer technologies and sustainability.
Going out to meet communities and studying their use of technology is one of Lou’s activities.
Portraits 2 Passages will enable us to widen the field (without turning it into a scientific study) and look at the relationship that people have with their territory, their movements, their social links, etc.

2018

Languages and cultures

Since his Erasmus, Nicolas has been looking for ways to meet endangered languages and cultures, to raise awareness of them and preserve them.
What better way to promote them than by hitchhiking and staying with local people?

2017

Start & Stop

Lou and Nicolas, respectively president and treasurer of Ingénieur sans Frontières in Troyes, have launched Start & Stop. The aim was to get twenty pairs to hitchhike and solve a series of challenges. Diane was not far away and took part in the second edition in Aube.
Now that the concept has been validated, it needs to be developed… and that’s going to be Portraits 2 Passages.

2016

Diane and Lou’s first stop

In 2016, it was Diane and Lou’s turn to embark on a new hitchhiking adventure: discovering Brittany for a fortnight. Two years later, they will set off again for Auvergne.

2015

Nicolas’ first stop

Following his Erasmus, Nicolas wanted to get to know the people of Europe and try out a new concept for him: hitchhiking.
He spent 6 weeks in Europe: France, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Hungary, Ukraine, Georgia and Armenia, just before returning to Troyes the day before his final exam.
And it was only a trial…

2014

First meeting

We met at the Université de Technologie de Troyes. Nicolas was going on an Erasmus trip to Sweden; Diane and Lou had just joined the Computer Science and Information Systems engineering course at UTT.