Around Terrass Hotel: Jump to it ! 20 octobre 2007
Posted by webmaster in : Parcours , trackbackToyota Magazine Issue 31 – AYGO vs Parkour Story by Jessica Morris
Photography Richie Hopson
It’s dawn in Montmartre, at the highest point of the French capital. Raimundo Querido sits next to me at the terrace of a café and steadfastly refuses the croissant I offer him.
‘I don’t want to hinder my performance,’ he says, and pushes it back in my direction.
The performance to which Raimundo alludes is one of the more elaborate stories yet to be thought up for Today Tomorrow magazine: a race through the streets of Paris. But the twist that makes this race slightly more complicated than most is the choice of vehicles: for my part, I will be driving the special edition AYGO Black. As for Raimundo, he won’t be driving at all, but relying on the latest French urban transport solution: parkour.
Raimundo is a ‘traceur’, an expert in the increasingly popular hybrid between extreme sports and artistic expression that is parkour. Also called free-running, the sport was born from a mix of military exercises, Buddhist philosophy and boredom in the city. Modern-day ninjas use urban grit and acrobatics to run, climb and swing themselves across an urban landscape as efficiently as possible, moving over, under, around or through any obstacles in their path.
The pursuit was introduced to British mainstream consciousness by parkour legend David Belle in a BBC ident piece called Rush Hour, in which he was seen leaping over rooftops and down stairwells. Then Madonna, always on the lookout for the latest trend, used a group of traceurs in her Tokyo-based music video, Jump. But it was with the spectacular opening chase scene of the latest James Bond feature film, Casino Royale, that parkour went truly global.
Raimundo, 26, has now given up his day job in banking to dedicate himself entirely to parkour. When asked about his sport, his frown of concentration does most of the talking. ‘With the necessary strength, stamina, agility and training, parkour turns physical barriers into obstacles that can be overcome,’ he explains. ‘I don’t suffer the city, I live in osmosis with it.’ It’s like talking to an insanely buff philosopher. ‘I have been practising parkour for nine years now,’ he continues.
‘The tricks I need have become instincts. I know I can win the race today, even if it is against a car.’ We’ll see about that.
The race will take us from the bottom of Montmartre, near the legendary Moulin Rouge, to the top of the Butte, near the Sacré Coeur.
It’s a maze of cobbled slopes, twists and turns for my AYGO Black – the perfect environment to make the most of the car’s incredible agility. Raimundo’s journey, on the other hand, will be pretty much as the crow flies. It’s man vs machine, parkourist vs tourist. I am confident, though; after all, I have the ultimate advantage of speed on my side.
‘I’ll see you at the top,’ I shout and my AYGO Black zooms off, taking an easy head start over Raimundo. As the street narrows ahead, a refuse lorry creates our first obstacle.
I speed up in front of my opponent and have no trouble slipping through the space on the left of the truck.But Raimundo has already disappeared.
I look up and what I see makes me hit the brakes – Raimundo is actually climbing up the wall of the building opposite me. He’s like a squirrel on steroids. Swiftly reaching the roof, he leaps down to the street on the other side of the avenue. I find it difficult not to simply watch in awe as he fluidly and effortlessly lands, rolls, jumps up and continues to run, but this is a race – and one that I am now losing. I press hard on the accelerator.We chase each other this way around the bends until he disappears up one of Montmartre’s countless flights of stairs. Great for pedestrians, not so handy for cars. Raimundo’s gone, and it’s a dead end for me. I reverse and look out for signs of this very French Spider-Man.
From the corner of my left eye, I see something approaching fast. It’s Raimundo.
He flies down a set of stairs, leaps over the car as if it wasn’t there and continues in a straight line, not even stopping to take his breath. He vanishes again around a corner. It doesn’t matter that he is a little ahead, though; I am almost there.
I park up on the finishing line, the square in front of the Sacré Coeur. There is no sign of Raimundo. It seems that I was right: a man on foot simply can’t beat a consummate city car. The incredulous looks of passers-by confirm my impressions of victory. But they don’t seem to be looking at me. I turn around to see Raimundo performing a back flip from a railing in front of a 20-foot drop. He lands and winks.
‘But I thought I had overtaken you,’ I blurt out. ‘Your AYGO is very quick, it’s true,’ Raimundo says, ‘but cars must stick to the road that others have chosen for them.
For me, nothing is an obstacle.’
It’s an attractive solution to the city’s congestion problems. But how do you go about becoming a traceur? Perhaps it is just a question of ignoring what your mother always told you – if your friend jumps off a building, should you jump too?
Raimundo suddenly looks very serious. ‘Parkour takes a lot of practice and discipline,’ he says sternly. ‘Too many people think that it looks easy and try difficult tricks before they are ready.’ This is something that most traceurs seem to feel strongly about. Parkour is an intensely physical art, but the mind needs to be prepared as well. Physical barriers can be overcome, but the fear of failing a trick and ending up in hospital is just as momentous an obstacle as a 20-foot high wall.
‘Risk is also the best part of parkour, of course,’ Raimundo adds. ‘The sensation of landing safely after wondering whether you are actually going to make it to the other side just cannot be beaten. You can only achieve this by trying again and again. I love pushing myself further and further.’
• Where to stay
Terrass Hotel****
Montmartre has a host of hotels on the flanks of its hill, but the Terrass Hotel is by far the most comfortable. Part of the family-run Maurice Hurand group, it relies on its service to prove that boutique hotels can provide a refined, luxury experience without being pretentious.
If you fancy straying a bit further into Paris, our four other boutique hotels are ideally located in the historical Latin quarter. The elegantly designed rooms offer wonderful hotel comfort within easy reach of Notre Dame and the Jardin du Luxembourg.
Visit www.hotelsmauricehurand.com
All in the moves
This sport isn’t just difficult to do, it’s difficult to understand, so here’s our guide to the parkourist’s favourite moves
Tic-tac
If an obstacle such as a wall is too high, the traceur tic-tacs, using a smaller corner to bounce off.
Passe muraille, or wall run
To climb over a wall at speed, traceurs use one or more steps to propel their body upwards and grab the top of the wall to hoist themselves up.
Cat leap, or monkey vault
To pass over an obstacle, the traceur approaches it straight on, places both hands on the obstacle and passes both feet between the hands and over the obstacle.
360, or reverse vault
The traceur’s body travels around one hand planted on an obstacle, rotating 180 degrees on take off and 180 degrees after clearing the obstacle.
Back flip
Not for the faint-hearted. Traceurs stand on a ledge with their back to the void and then throw themselves off doing a back flip. Scary.
Commentaires»
no comments yet - be the first?