Favorites since the start of the competition, it was finally the black envelope that got the better of the Parisian sisters Alexandra and Laura during the semi-final of Beijing Express, the secret choice. Insulted on social networks even before the show started, they believe they have been victims of “fairly harsh criticism”. They come back for 20 minutes on their journey on the M6 show.
You were eliminated by the black envelope received following the abandonment of your partner during the bungee jump. Do you regret not jumping?
Alexandra: Honestly, I’ve asked myself this question thousands of times… I told Laura that I would do everything on the Beijing Express but that bungee jumping, I couldn’t. Even going back now, I couldn’t have.
Laura: Sometimes when I think about it, I think maybe if I had, it would have helped her. But each time she tells me not at all so I have no regrets. I don’t blame him at all. As she had told me before leaving that she would not, I knew it. When we arrive, it hasn’t been shown but I take a sauce where she says to me: “You had better not push me, anyway I won’t do it so you don’t shame me in front of me. Stephane [Rotenberg]. Whatever I said or did, she wouldn’t have done it so there was no point pushing her down.
You finished first in several stages and you were seen as fierce competitors by the other candidates. How did you experience your status as favorites during the race?
AT : We were happy. We sometimes tell ourselves that we are strong because we win, but we are never sure of ourselves… The last episodes were a little more complicated. It’s true that when we saw the candidates say: “Great, we’ve passed the sisters”, it’s cool all the same.
I : Our goal from the start was to show that we were there and that we were a threat to our competitors. When we saw that we managed to grab the amulets, we thought that was pretty cool.
Do you think that your lower rankings in the last stages are due to overconfidence?
I : I do not think so. During the episode of the “untouchables”, we knew that they wanted to break our duet with Alexandre and Chirine so we constantly had a sword above our heads.
AT : We ended up in a final duel because we weren’t chosen. Which is normal because in the opposite situation we would have done the same as them. The next stage we had a handicap so it was difficult not to finish last. Then we were chosen but I don’t know if it was because we were less good or if it was the situation that did that.
Do you think that your alliance with Alexander and Shirin ultimately harmed you?
I : The secret choice really centered our bond around the word “alliance”. But as the producers told us, in every season there are. With the secret choice it was more marked. In the end, it’s just people with whom we got along very well and we wanted to spend the most time together. When we see that we can protect each other, that we can help each other, our goal is to go as far as possible together. The Beijing Express adventure is also about these links that we have created. If we didn’t have these friendships, we wouldn’t have had the same adventure. Today whether it’s with Alexandre and Chirine or Angie, we’re all in Paris, if we don’t see each other for a week we miss each other, we call each other. We really became very, very close and that was already the case in the adventure.
AT : We didn’t like doing that either, but from day one we were told that it was going to be how it was going to work. Obviously the rule was more dangerous for us than for other pairs because the competitors are tempted to choose a strong pair to clear it. We were a little forced to do that but we would have preferred to play our game quietly and not choose at the end who will go to the final duel…
This alliance also earns you a lot of criticism from viewers. Do you understand the reproaches made to you?
AT : I understand that people may not like us or be bothered by our strategies. What I don’t understand is when we are told that we are boosted. We won events, we fought for! We were also told a lot that our handicap wasn’t hard enough, but the production didn’t show everything at this stage. Our handicap bothered us from morning to night. With the cameraman we had to find a car for four, it was super complicated. The proof is that we finished last that day. We’re also often told that we don’t need the 100,000 euros because we come from Neuilly… We really get some pretty tough messages.
I : The real problem, and the production had told us before the broadcast, is that the female pairs take it all in the face every year before the show even starts. When our portrait came out, we already started receiving messages…
Do you feel that there is a form of misogyny in the messages you receive?
I : Yes. Me it shocks me but in truth, it is society that does that… Some people do not conceive that you can be two women and get out of it. Even before the strategies, people were waiting for reasons to criticize us. Every year, it’s the same thing. Cinzia and Rose-Marie or Laeticia and Aurélie came to tell us about it to let us know that it was going to happen, and it happened! I just find it sad that the show hadn’t even started that we were already getting insults.
AT : We can’t be loved by everyone anyway.
Looking back, how do you analyze your adventure?
I : Sometimes we question ourselves, we say to ourselves: “If we had done that, we would not have gone to the final duel. “But when you think about it, we are happy to have lived all that we have lived. For example, the final duel if we hadn’t done one, we wouldn’t have experienced this stress. We lived through such intense moments.
AT : The last final duel, I think I watched it 300 times. The moment I scream “Lauraaaaaaa” I remember how I felt at that moment and it’s amazing.
A last final duel which you thought you would escape, which also earned you many criticisms…
AT : We got a lot of criticism about that because people think it was a low blow. We were up against the wall because if we chose to leave Xavier and Céline last, we were sure that they were going to choose us. They were indebted to Clément and Emeline for having saved them during the “untouchables”.
I : What was not said is that when I spent the evening with Emeline during the mixed pairs, she told me that for merit, she would have liked to be opposed to Alexandre and Chirine and Laura and me. We didn’t see in the editing that they also made sure that Xavier and Céline were last. For us it was obvious that they would choose them.
What is your best memory of Beijing Express ?
AT : Me it’s the arrival of Laura during the final duel against Emeline and Clément.
I : Me it’s when I opened the non-elimination envelope. It was so strong and we weren’t counting on it so much. We went from the worst day of our life to the best day of our life in seconds and it was an incredible feeling.