I am a French guy from New Caledonia (South Pacific island) and after one year spent in Moscow, Federation of Russia, to learn Russian, I am currently a Wwoofer in Germany to learn everything possible about making cheese and honey.
Curious, always learning new things in a wide scope of various fields, reminding them less and less (the privilege of great age!), always happy to discover new cultures (especially European ones), and happy to listen to people speaking of their own country and the way they perceive their society (but also simply speaking of their job and their experiences).
Relatively resilient and adaptive, I mix with everybody and, without exclusive, I meet people from any background or "social classes", as far as the respect and interest are mutual (the most tolerant people are not always the ones you can think of first !!).

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Mainly to meet people from other cultures, as we don't welcome so much tourists in the place I usually live in (New Caledonia). In 5 years, only one single request to host a traveller (it is far and expensive to get to New Caledonia). Once my only "Thälmannspionnier" badge (private joke for Ossies).
When I travel, I also don't like to go to hotels since they are from my point of view boring places (mmmh ... maybe I will change my mind after testing a five-star one!!). Let say that, like the touristic attractions, they are not the best place to meet the "natives". In hotels they never have the time to answer my thousand questions about the country !
When I am living abroad (like now), I also like to meet the "real country", not only the community of expats.

Interests

ECLECTISM and ENDLESS CURIOSITY !!! Nature, forest, jungle, nice landscapes, hiking in lost places, the SILENCE, introspection, meditation, sauna, reading, nature sciences, history (especially the last century), European heritage, museums (incl. arts), iconic arts and photography (incl. nude), design under all shape, architecture, archeology, reading, dark bitter chocolate, unkown and foreign food, a guilty weakness for Polish smoked sausage, Hefeweizen beers, peaty-smocky whiskies of Islay, cheese making and tasting, campfire and BBQs, foreign languages, foreign writing systems, every man-made machine which helps us to fly (incl. Zeppelins), parachute, space technology and exploration, astronomy, science-fiction, biotechnologies, geopolitics, peoples history, history of the political ideas, Papua New Guinea, West coast of Scotland, Russia, the DDR and its history, living abroad, how other people live, etc...
We should find something to speak about !!!!

• arts
• architecture
• design
• photography
• sauna
• flying
• technology
• chess
• reading
• traveling
• agriculture
• archeology
• astronomy
• geopolitics
• history
• languages
• nature
• ddr
• forest
• nature walks
• parachuting
• introspection
• astronautics
• lagavullin whisky
• rausch dark bitter chocolate
• hefe weissbier
• mecklenburg
• french smelly cheese

Music, Movies, and Books

Amongst others (to get a glimpse) :
M O V I E S :
2001 a space odyssey - Stanley Kubrick /
The thin red line - Terrence Malick /
Babe the galant pig - Chris Noonan /
Good Bye Lenin ! - Wolfgang Becker /
Dersou Ouzala - Akira Kurosawa /
Runaway train - Andrei Konchalovsky /
Là-haut, un roi au-dessus des nuages - Pierre Schoenoerffer /
Monsieur Hire - Patrice Leconte /
TRON - Steven Lisberger /
B O O K S :
1984 - George Orwell /
Farenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury /
Ravage - René Barjavel /
Le Roi des aulnes - Michel Tournier /
L'adieu au roi - Pierre Schoendoerffer /
Мертвые души - Николай Гоголь /
Downward to the Earth - Robert Silverberg /
M U S I C :
Heroes - David Bowie /
Cut here - The Cure /
Westerland - Die Ärtze /
A sky full of stars - Coldplay /
Nie vergessen - Glasperlenspiel /
Ich bin ich - Rosentolz /
Adler sterben - Gigi /
Herz über Kopf - Joris /
Time to pretend - MGMT /
Fakateretere - Gabilou /
London skinhead crew - Booze & Glory /
Waltzing Matilda - Banjo Paterson & Christina McPherson /
An die Freunde (final mouvement 9th Symphony) - Ludwig von Beethoven /
Госуда́рственный гимн Росси́йской Федера́ции - Александр Александров
Свяще́нная война́ - Васи́лий Ле́бедев-Кума́ч и Александр Александров
Летели облака - ДДТ
На заре - Альянс
Весна - Дольфин

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

A three months trek along the Kokoda Track in the mountainous jungle of Papua (for my MSc thesis).
An magical sunrise on Angkor Vat main temple (Cambodia).
Military service in the French Parachute Regiment.

Teach, Learn, Share

I can teach a bit of my native French (for those interested in). And I can speak of my job if needed (do you honestly know what is a forest engineer ??) and of course about how a forest works. But don't worry I have millions of other centers of interest !!!
I really need to practise my rusting English and to improve my primitive German and Russian. Above all I want to learn more about the country of my guests (that helps me to "travel").

What I Can Share with Hosts

Explanation about how works an Oceanian society such as the one I live in (you will never believe what you will ear !!).

PLACES I would love to go to :
Planet Mars, outer space, Antarctica, Siberia, Hawaii

PLACES I have been to (too quickly) :
Los Angeles, Istanbul, London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Brussels, Amsterdam, Geneva, Catania, Vienna, Praha, Saint Petersburg, Athens, Heraklion (Creta), Siem Reap (Cambodia), Chisinau (Moldavia)

Countries I’ve Visited

Albania, Australia, Cyprus, Fiji, Finland, French Polynesia, Greece, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macao, Nepal, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Poland, Russian Federation, Singapore, Sweden, Thailand, Vatican City State

Countries I’ve Lived In

Denmark, France, Germany, New Caledonia, Russian Federation, Scotland

•