CURRENT MISSION

I want to be the best mother and teacher on Earth! I also want to contribute to finding a cure to FSHD muscular dystrophy.

ABOUT ME

I am a French teacher at the Bush School in Seattle. I teach upper school students. My husband Christian Dardonville is also French and is a furniture restorer specialized in antiques (www.dardonville.com). We arrived in Seattle from Paris back in 2000. We speak French at home so that our son Yann can stay fluent (and he is!) but we also speak English. Yann was born in France, and is a great musician, singer, comedian, student, etc. He is currently a junior at Whitman College in Walla Walla.

PHILOSOPHY

"Do unto others how you would like others to do unto you" (or something like that!) The concept of couchsurfing really fits my philosophy. I think there should be many more things in life that should be based on trust and exchange. People who respect us as hosts will be respected as hosts. We believe in random acts of kindness. This is what makes us happy (and hopefully, makes you happy as well!)

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

We host every summer and often during the year. We open our house to you. We participate by giving people the best experience possible. You become part of the family. It's that simple. We also sometimes lend our house to couch surfers when we travel. That's practical for people who would like to stay in the region for a few weeks. The catch? You will need to feed and pet Gaston the cat everyday, and water our plants and garden from time to time (it gets really dry in Seattle in the summer!)

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

We haven't had the chance to use couch surfing as much as we would like for travelling, but as far as couch surfers staying with us are concerned, we like to host people travelling through town, not people who live in town and try to find a cheap way to live (no rent and a good bed!) If you are of the latter category, please abstain.

Interests

Traveling, meeting people, how the brain functions, epigenetics, politics, anthropology, cultural differences, psychology, etc.

• pets
• cats
• politics
• traveling
• socializing
• music
• guitar
• swimming
• anthropology
• teaching
• psychology

Music, Movies, and Books

Good French songs (from the last 40 years), "The Help" (just finished reading it and found that it was a terrific book, worth a good discussion), Charlie Chaplin movies, etc., Adele, classical music... Lots of eclectic interests!

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Traveled through Nicaragua during the 5th year of their revolution for my B.A. in anthropology. Survived the Contra revolutionaries, the mosquitoes and the long bus ride from Managua to Bluefields!

Teach, Learn, Share

I certainly can teach you some French, and how to make no knead bread, and my husband can give you advice on how to repair anything made of wood and more. Yann can teach you chords on the Ukulele and the guitar.

What I Can Share with Hosts

We can show you Seattle, tell you what to see in our region. We can take you to Lake Washington if you would like to swim.

Countries I’ve Visited

Canada, Germany, Ireland, Morocco, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Portugal, Senegal, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

France, Germany, United States

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