FAIRS AND FUNFAIRS, ON THE ROAD THEY PUT ON A FAMILY SHOW | M6 | Zone Interdite

They live an extraordinary daily life, where their trades are passed down from generation to generation like a genetic heritage. Whether they’re showmen, circus performers or street peddlers, their office is the road, their school the ring. For the youngest, there are no notebooks or blackboards, just life lessons: setting up a merry-go-round in less than an hour, balancing on a horse before you know how to count, selling products with your wit as your best selling point. For these itinerants, the pressure is immense: will they live up to the success of their ancestors? How can they perpetuate their traditions in the face of new technologies and new ways of consuming?

In the Vancrayenest family, we’ve been showmen for 8 generations. From an early age, the children of Karl, the patriarch, have run the cash registers and piloted the rides, moving from school to school as they went. But now it’s time to hand down the reins, and Karl-Heinz, the eldest in the family, will have to manage his first ride alone at France’s biggest funfair, where the slightest incident can be dramatic.

Camelot is one of the oldest travelling trades. René and his wife Lalou have been traveling the roads of France from fair to fair for 30 years. Now close to retirement, they have become wholesalers and are trying to pass on their passion for the trade to their children. But in the face of competition from the Internet and falling purchasing power, success is becoming increasingly difficult. Not that their daughter Jenny is discouraged by this, as she now practices her persuasion skills on instagram, a tool that may enable her to be more successful than her parents – if only she can find the miracle product!

In their big top in the Bois de Boulogne, the Gruss family has been perpetuating the equestrian arts since 1780. Alexis, the patriarch, has just died, leaving the reins to his eldest son Firmin. The new head of the family will have to establish himself as a leader among his family and train his 2 daughters and 2 nieces to perpetuate the success of their show.  The fruit of hard work and an extremely rigorous upbringing, will the latest generation of daughters live up to their mothers’ talent?

Aboard their 3 foodtrucks, Rudy, Joël and their little brother Paul have built an empire of exotic cuisine thanks to their sense of showmanship. A culinary heritage handed down by their ancestors, a father from Guadeloupe and a mother from Cameroon. But to last, you have to renew yourself, so for their 10th anniversary, the 3 brothers decided to launch a new recipe for brochette with Cameroonian flavors. But the marinade is a secret jealously guarded by their aunt in Douala. Will she deliver the key to success? Will the French palate be ready for this spicy recipe?