DANGERS SUR LA ROUTE DES VACANCES

With the first major summer holiday exodus just weeks away, we invite you to discover a place we all frequent without truly knowing it: the motorway. France boasts the fourth largest road network in the world. Over 10,000 kilometers traveled by nearly 130 million passengers each year. To ensure the safety and comfort of these millions of drivers, nearly 16,000 employees are on duty 24/7. As a result, motorways are four times safer than national roads, and the French network is the safest in Europe. The most iconic of all French motorways is the A7. A long ribbon of 320 kilometers that winds through the most beautiful landscapes of Southern France. It's the motorway of sunshine and holidays. A world we generally only glimpse from our cars. So, for an entire summer, cameras were installed to give us a behind-the-scenes look at the lives of those who, day and night, ensure its smooth operation, as well as those who are inventing the highway of tomorrow. Jean-Pierre, the guardian angel, has been a patrolman for twenty years. In his yellow truck, he's the first to respond to any danger. Children left behind in parking lots or tourists picnicking along the roadside—nothing surprises him anymore. He's also the one who takes all the risks, like retrieving a bicycle that's fallen onto the road or being the first to secure the victims of an accident, like that busy holiday exodus day when a truck carrying gas cylinders overturned, blocking the flow of vacationers. He doesn't speak any foreign languages, but he gets by in all of them. First broadcast on March 3, 2013 A film by Vincent Dupouy