At a pitch dating event, a person has five minutes to present their single friend. Here, Amandine introduces Charly during an evening at Boom Boom Villette in Paris on February 10, 2026. DARIA SVERTILOVA FOR LE MONDE
On a February evening in 2019, Yann, then 18, wandered through the streets of downtown Bordeaux. He nervously checked his phone, the notification volume turned up all the way. Suddenly, thumbs-up emojis flooded his screen, signaling it was time for him to step in. He rushed into a bar and called out to his friend, spotting her and feigning surprise: "Lucie, I was looking for you everywhere! We have to go to that surprise birthday party for Valentine." This improvised exit line still made them laugh today.
A few days earlier, Yann and Lucie, his childhood friend, spent an evening hanging out. She confided in him that she wanted to meet new people. Slouched on a mutual friend's couch, balancing a plate of pesto pasta on their knees, they got to work. Yann created Lucie's very first Tinder profile, spending hours with her sorting through which photos to highlight. The first date was quickly set. Lucie hesitated. "She was stressed out, so I told her I'd hang out near the bar, just in case the date went sour," he recalled. "But we hadn't really thought the plan all the way through and it was pretty obvious," he said, laughing. While the exit mission was shaky, the story itself became "legendary": a case of friends acting as a safety net, as Cupid and as the creators of romantic connections. In short, the Swiss Army knives of emotional support.
