“The wanderer cultivates his childhood spirit”
Your first names are intriguing. Where does yours come from, Mouts?
My birth name, Mouton, was a little difficult to bear in middle school. A friend gave me the idea of abbreviating it by adding an “s”. Since then, everyone has called me that.
And you, Nans?
That’s my real first name. Family legend has it that it was blown to my parents by a hitchhiker friend.
Already a call to travel! What family environment did you grow up in?
Nans: My father was a shepherd, mason, carpenter, before starting, very late, to study mathematics. He became passionate about computers and became an engineer… Coming from a very poor family of 10 children, he grew up in the heart of the Morvan forest. This life in the woods made him very resourceful. It took me a while to understand that his “class defector” side had familiarized me with the fact of passing, in my travels, from one universe to another.
And on the maternal side?
Nans: Mom has always been passionate about human relationships. Trained as a nurse, she managed a residential home for the elderly, then she worked in a structure for autistic people, and finally with families experiencing social difficulties. As she loved to travel, in the summer we went wild camping in the Drôme with the old Renault 21, fishing by hand in the rivers…
Resourcefulness, nature, taste for others: all the fundamentals of your show are already there!
Nans: Naked & Pantyhosed, it’s the art of the D system. At home, we didn’t really have books, we didn’t go to concerts, but we had the culture of do-it-yourself: make your wood, make your garden… And I, who was more of a dreamer child, I was going to build my cabins in the trees. It was a very childhood roots (laughs).
Mouts, for your part, what is your family roots?
Musts: Both my parents are teachers. Both lost their mothers at a very young age. They made themselves, with the motto: “In life, you have to move forward. » They passed on to me the conviction that nothing is unachievable: either you know how to do it, or you turn to someone who knows.
For example, they were among the first to build a wooden frame house. We worked there every Wednesday, all our weekends. It gave me a taste for effort and the ability to tinker with just about anything. I also received great curiosity from them. As they had all the school holidays, we took the opportunity to travel around France in a caravan. At 10 years old, I knew all the departments!
Any regrets, all the same?
Musts: I did not feel comfortable expressing emotions. We are a family of quiet people. Later, while traveling on the American continent, I met people who hugged me, a stranger! I experienced these nomadic years as heart-opening courses. It was by returning to my loved ones that I better understood the strength of their love. At home, we don’t know how to say “I love you”, we don’t give each other gifts, or they fall short of the mark. But when it comes to helping each other move, everyone is there.
How did you get to know each other?
Nans: We met in 2005 at Insa in Toulouse (engineering school, Editor’s note), one evening when, very tipsy, we had found nothing better than to organize a trash race. This desire to share delusions has never left us. As well as that of traveling the world.
During your teams, how do you complement yourself?
Musts: Nah, he’s the one with the brilliant ideas. The ones that save you a year and a half of life!
Nans: And Mouts, he has the strength to achieve. In our pair, I bring the vision, he the structure.
In Naked & Pantyhosed, you also cultivate your schoolboy side. Go roast marshmallows on a volcano, try to sing a lullaby to the big bad wolf…
Nans: I have never met a gaming partner as powerful as Mouts. All I have to do is say, “Hey, we could do this,” and he says, “Okay, let’s do it.”
Musts: Nah, he’s the kind of guy who, while waiting for a long time at the side of the road, grabs a piece of Rubalise lying around and suggests: “How about we hitchhike blindfolded?” »
All these wacky challenges might seem like the whims of spoiled children, right?
Musts: I would rather say challenges for happy kids.
Nans: It is not something political, but militant. Something about resistance. In a world so rational, so distressing at times, it is imperative to let the spirit of childhood exist. To open poetry bubbles. But there are plenty of other things in our show. Our eccentric side allows us to touch deep sadness.
Musts: With Naked & Pantyhosed, we also encounter all the darkness of humanity. We happened to sleep with a murderer. What fascinates me is understanding the inner workings of a person. Why did she make this decision? Where does she find the strength to overcome her trauma? A year and a half ago, we were peeling potatoes with our host. He tells us about his debts, his wife who is cheating on him… And he confides to us: “I won’t make it through the end of the year, I’m going to screw myself up. » This guy who is at the bottom of the hole, what do we do with him? He’s not just a movie character. Witnessing so much violence in people’s lives is very hard. Hence the imperative need for lightness.
A lightness both literally and figuratively. You start your shoots with the simplest device…
Musts: We leave on foot, without a technical team, without money, without clothes, even in the middle of winter. Just with our cameras. We throw ourselves into the void.
Nans: We are going to look for this little miracle: that a stranger agrees to welcome us into his home. Even if you have to knock on ten, twenty, thirty doors, it has the merit of making human connection essential. If I don’t build a relationship, I don’t eat, I don’t have a roof over my head.
Like migrants. Except that you may have the right skin color, the right relational codes…
Musts: Of course we are privileged. We have this incredible security of knowing that our loved ones will welcome us, even if we return in rags.
Nans: The main feedback from viewers is: “Thank you, because your travels restore faith in humanity. » Knowing how to trust is a terrible deficiency in our society.
Do you really think your show can change the harshness of the world?
Musts: Already, two guys tumbling around naked, that breaks the ice. People have very little space to talk about what they are going through. Whatever the environment, we see so much emotional misery… We welcome our guests where they are. We bring more than listening, consideration. And this consideration requires availability: to exchange, to lend a hand in the garden… The wanderer is a millionaire in availability.
Nans: This year, we are going to launch participatory projects throughout France. The first starts on November 29. For the community that follows us on social networks, this will create continuity with Naked & Pantyhosed, where the notion of service provided is essential.
Praising the free meeting, that is precisely the objective of the quarterly Walp. Why launch a magazine dedicated to vagrancy?
Nans: Walp (“ hair » in verlan, in reference to the expression “ naked »Editor’s note) will open its pages to a whole tribe of wanderers who will share inspiring, unusual, refreshing stories. Sometimes a sedentary life puts us to sleep. Wandering allows us to find a little joyful flame inside us. With our notoriety, we would like to become the spokespersons for this sober way of traveling.
Do we get a taste for this voluntary sobriety, or does this challenge remain a struggle?
Musts: Both, my captain! Of course, outside of travel, I find my credit card, my bills. But even back home, we can cultivate curiosity, empathy, and distancing ourselves from money. Wandering is a way of being in the world.
Nans: Mouts and I both chose to live in rural Drôme. In my hamlet of fifteen inhabitants, we help each other, we have a real village life. And I share my house with roommates.
Why choose to co-publish Walp with the Bayard group, and to work with our title in particular?
Nans: Bayard is a group that does not seek short-term profit. And The Pilgrim, It’s still 150 years of know-how! But what touched us the most in your weekly is this desire to put people at the center. Like the pilgrim, the wanderer is vulnerable. And the power of stripping is that it makes us come alive together.
