Emmanuel Brault, co-founder of Hexplo: For the travel emoji to finally be a bike !

What if, more than just getting us from A to B, cycling made us happier? Freer, lighter, more confident. That's the promise of Emmanuel Brault, founder of Hexplo, a bicycle travel planner. It's the perfect way to rediscover your adventurous soul!

Hello Emmanuel, can you please introduce yourself in a few words?

My name is Emmanuel, I'm 24 years old, I'm an engineer by training and I created Hexplo with Augustin Gervaise, in 2021. Hexplo is a bike trip planner, which allows anyone to organize their own journey easily. On the app, you enter your point of departure and your point of arrival, and Hexplo helps you organize your trip in its entirety: the best routes, paved or wild, places to sleep (hotel, camping, couch surfing, bivouac), places to park your bike, bike repair shops... And of course, spots to see, including the most beautiful villages in France, for example! Hexplo also lets you plan each day precisely, with a precise overview of the number of kilometers and scheduled stops. In short, we really are the Waze of cycling, and what's more, we're now 100% free!

What are your earliest cycling memories?

I remember going for a ride in the Bois de Boulogne with my father when I was 6. Later, I mostly used it to get to my leisure activities: the conservatory, tennis... But above all, I remember that I had a lot of bikes stolen because I never hooked them up properly!

What about your first bike trip?

It was in 2018. We went to La Rochelle/Bayonne with some friends, following the whole Basque coast, on the Vélodyssée. It was a real adventure, we had no idea where we were going, and we had a lot of problems. We ended up sleeping in a field at 2:00 in the morning. There were a lot of unforeseen events, but that's exactly what made it such an adventure.

"The change of scenery is more the surprise of encounters

than a culture shock".

Is that when you caught the cycling bug?

Yes! It was an immense pleasure to move around with my legs. It's crazy to see the landscape that way, to sleep somewhere else every night. My second trip was an incredible physical challenge: I did Amsterdam/Paris in a week. Three months later, I set off again for Burgundy. I had already launched Hexplo, but at the time, I wanted to take people on a 4x4 trip. I'd been away for 4 days with some friends, and all of a sudden we said to each other: "OK, tonight we'll sleep at someone's place, and if no one lets us in, too bad, we'll carry on".

On the very first evening, a winegrower welcomed us. And we stayed for two weeks to harvest the grapes. It was an incredible change of scenery, even though I was only 200 km from Paris. I realized that a change of scenery is more about the surprise of encounters than culture shock. So I changed my project: I decided to help people travel around France by bike.

Why do you think cycling transforms the travel experience?

Today's idea of a change of scenery is an illusion. Because it's not so much an external environment that brings you that, but rather the inner world you discover when you open yourself up to others, even if it's only 15 minutes from home. A change of scenery means getting out of your comfort zone. That's what I'm looking for when I travel.

"Everyone needs to rediscover the adventurer in them. That's what makes us alive.

Why does adventure appeal more and more?

I think we're all looking for some kind of confrontation with the elements. As you speak, I'm in the middle of a cycling expedition with Augustin Gervaise, with whom I co-founded Hexplo. And in the gîte where we slept last night, there was a book on happiness, in which I read this quote: "Man's most harmful and dangerous feeling is fear". Today, we make everything safe, we limit all forms of constraint, and we lose our ability to improvise.

Cycling lets you let go. And I think it gives you confidence. And that's what Hexplo is all about: enabling people to stop being afraid of doing crazy things. I think everyone needs to rediscover their inner adventurer. Because that's what makes us alive.

"So much the better if everything isn't mastered

!

What are the barriers you're talking about? Being athletic? Being resourceful

Yes, there's this preconceived notion that you have to be very athletic. But that's not true. I do 50 km a day, and I love stopping, chatting with people, taking smoke breaks... Anyone can go cycling. If you're really not comfortable, you don't ride much, you choose flat routes. You can go on a bike trip without knowing how to pitch a tent. It's not rocket science. It's just as well if you don't master everything, otherwise it's a pain in the ass!

What do you pack for a bike trip?

I travel light. A luggage rack, a sleeping bag, a ground sheet, a tent and a turnbuckle, the ultra-practical accessory for securing all your stuff! I take my computer and pack three T-shirts, a pair of socks and a pair of pants in my panniers ;-).

"My role is to break down the barriers

to entry to bicycle travel".

What role should you or can you play to help this sector evolve?

I think my role is to give a voice to bike travel and break down the barriers to entry, so that people are no longer afraid to travel by bike and can get help organizing their trip. We conceived Hexplo as an intuitive tool for centralizing everything, but also as a community in which people can exchange advice and help, and even addresses of people to stay with.

What will tomorrow's tourism look like?

In the 70s, tourism was all about going far away AND flying. Now it's mass tourism. It's obviously easier to go where people have already been, but everyone always ends up in the same place. And that kind of tourism completely denatures places. In recent years, there has been a move towards more intimate trips. And after Covid, there was a huge increase in climate awareness, which led people to travel less far. Lately, adventure tourism has made a real breakthrough. People are looking for excitement, to get away from it all and not just bask in the sun on the beach. In 50 years' time, traveling by bike will be one of the most popular forms of travel. My dream is that the emoji associated with travel will no longer be airplanes, but bicycles.

Would you have three pieces of advice for anyone who wants to start a cycling business?

First of all, they're right! It's clearly a market of the future. But above all, I'd say that it's essential to find meaning before you start, and not just think business. It's important that the project really motivates them, that it touches them personally, and even that they think you're going to help make people happy. This is our case with Hexplo, and it's a very powerful driving force. And then, the right mentality for entrepreneurship, even though it's still early days for me: be persistent and extremely humble, ask for lots of advice, and question yourself. There will always be people who will make you want to give up, who will tell you that your product sucks, that it's worthless. But if you absolutely want to succeed, if you have the drive to change things, if your mission is bigger than just meeting a need, it won't affect you.

: "The living is easy", by the Guts, because it's very chill and I like the lyrics.

: Kid Francescoli, live from Nopalitos, because it's so uplifting,

: Children, Undercat remix, by Robert Miles, because it's furious music and puts you in "warrior" mode in your head.

: "La horde du contrevent", by Alain Damasio, because I like his description of adventure: each person has his own talent, but we all move forward together, with community taking precedence.