I DON'T WASTE TIME ANSWERING NON-PERSONALISED MESSAGES.
I have a busy life, so unless you really find in my profile an echo of some important things to you, please don't write to me. Thanks.

Especially: As a life rule, I'm trying to avoid spending too much time with right-wing/conservative/republicans persons, because they make me feel sad, depressed, if not angry, with their boring talks about austerity, guiltiness, and their stupid liberalist, capitalist, and selfish ideas.
So please mention at some point of your request that you throw up on capitalism and sometimes when someone tells you that inequalities are the inalienable basis of our modern societies. :)
If you don't share these views, then just don't ask me to share some time with you please. We won't have a good time together.

NOTE : I'll be on holidays from 18/10 till 03/11, and unable to host people in that timespan.

I live in Paris, 10th arrondissement, since August 2020.
I did my PhD in Paris between 2014 and 2017. Then I spent three years as a biology-geology secondary-school teacher in French Guiana. Then I returned to Paris, to keep on teaching biology-geology in a secondary school in Pantin, probably staying around for something like 3 years too. So here I am! :)

I am happy to host cheerful people who want to share good humour and lovely discussions about culture, politics, history, biology, geology, languages, life... and who think we could get along together! :) Both elements required! See below...

NOTE : During the first month I spent on cs, I received plenty of non-personalised messages from potential guests, and a few messages from persons who use cs as a way to find sexual partners.
Since then, I've decided to systematically turn down any non-personalised request. In other words, my answer to those who consider making a request without reading any line of my profile page, will be, for sure, "No". Some like to regard it as a judgmental affair, whereas it is simply an objective way to protect myself, mostly avoiding wasting everyone's time while hosting persons with whom I have no guarantee that we could get along together. Moreover, I personally reckon that doing so is more sensible and moral than people only running for verified hosts or guests, or males hosting only women...
*useful tip*: If you can take your message, replace my name by "Jean Martin", and it still works, then you are in front of a well-characterised non-personalised message, congrats!

I don't feel like committing myself to a long arrangement before knowing personally a guest, so please don't ask me at first to host you for more than 3 nights.
Thanks for your comprehension! :)

If you are not verified and that you've reached the maximum number of requests, feel free to send me a friend request asking for accommodation. I don't think that trustworthiness can be bought, so I don't make any difference between verified and non verified cs members.

In July 2018, I defended my PhD in Biology, dealing with the evolution and development of jellyfish, at the Université Pierre et Marie Curie, in Paris.
A few months before that, in September 2017, I started teaching biology and geology in the collège (secondary school, 11-15 yo children) of a small town up on the river Maroni, quite lost in the middle of the equatorial forest of French Guiana.
Then, in September 2020, I went back to Paris, to keep on teaching biology and geology to youngsters in a lycée polyvalent (secondary school, 15-18 yo children) in Pantin (NE of Paris, next to La Villette).

Sciences are a theme of highest interest to me. However my experience of research led me to the conclusion that I was not ready to sacrifice so much of myself in an activity which is currently getting parasitised by heavy bugs, like mechanical publishing pressure, insane and unproductive competition and over-administratisation, huge time and money-wasting programs of project-based funding vampirising decent recurrent funding, unrecognition of teaching achievements, among others...
So I decided to go for teaching, and acquired there the intimate conviction that it is the most efficient place to make things change for good in our society, on a long-term scale. I don't overstate my impact on children. I simply try to do my part as a teacher, giving the example of someone globally enjoying his life without relying on high material and virtual consumerism, opened and linked to others, and quite knowledgeable and much more curious about both this amazing natural world and hardly-thinkable human constructions.
A student told me during the last-year bill: "One thing that I really appreciate is that we never feel dumb in your classes."
So what? Do I consider that I have changed the life of this girl?
I don't.
But I assume that I've opened a space where she felt confident, compatible with sane human relationships and the pursuit of inspiring things. I consider that as the first step in doing my part as a teacher. By the way, as you are reading this, I let you know that starting your request with "Hello Thomas who lives in a small flat," will make me more likely to give you a quick and positive answer! ;)

In French Guiana I was teaching 11 to 15 year-old teenagers from diverse origins: Bushinengues (descendants of runaway slaves from Surinamese sugar-cane plantations), some Native People from a few villages upstream, few Brazilians, Creoles, and Haitians, and hardly any white children.
The kids there lived in quite unique conditions, most of them torn between a nature-centred, low-impact existence and a new Western consumerist way of life and thought, whose encounter was probably one of the worst things that could have happened to them.
As a result, I didn't really get the impression that my teaching of biology/geology was really helpful to many of my students, which caused me a certain personal frustration, obviously. But at least I tried to give them a stable scope for the time I spent with them. And I undoubtedly learned a lot during these three years.

Now I'm teaching older children (15 to 18 yo), who also come from different origins (which I really consider as a richness in a classroom): Arab countries, Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia (my apologizes for the roughness of these practical geographical characterisations), etc.
Their life is not devoid of social issues, obviously. But it is less critical than what I saw in French Guiana. And up to now I feel I am able to cope with that amount of problems. I have also more interesting interactions with these soon-to-be adults, who are more mature, and more conscious of the role that studies could have in their life. So they gave me quite a lot of energy to invest in my teaching, and they seem to receive it quite well. All in all, if we take apart the stupid reforms that are regularly imposed on us teachers and students, I'm very happy in my profession, thanks to children! :)

I spend lot of my "free" time working to prepare my classes. But as I don't sleep that much, I still have decent daylight hours to see persons that are important to me, and to do things on my own, in a personal space that I strongly rely on.
The good news: you may definitely be part of some of the moments I share with my relations, as well as some of the moments that I consider for myself: learning things about your culture and your way of going through this existence. :) And when I feel like seeing someone privately, or spending some time with myself, you'll be free to explore our nice capital! ;)

I was not born and raised in Paris. I grew up in the countryside, in a small city near Vichy (roughly the centre of France). I go back there about once a month, to spend some time with my family, go for a walk in the countryside, meet a few old but strong friends, and in summer I may enjoy there having a BBQ in the garden, lying under the stars through a warm night, or eating all the fruits and vegetables that my parents are growing so well... By the way, as you are reading this, I let you know that starting your request with "Hello Thomas who lives in a small flat," will make me more likely to give you a quick and positive answer! ;)

I am to be away from home on school holidays, and on specific week ends. I'll try to put a word about the first ones at the top of my profile page, or use the calendar feature to block some dates. Concerning the latter, I'll turn down your request as soon as possible if I have other plans, so that you get enough time to look for other available hosts.

Here's my facebook profile. I always first set things through this website, but quite often then start a chat there: https://www.facebook.com/t.condamine

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

To meet open-minded and open-handed people, to learn from their differences, and maybe to show them a few tricks they don't know yet!

To help some fellows to enjoy their stay in a city about which I am really enthusiastic (and almost sentimental)!
If they make nice memories of this place, if then they are happy to share the latter with their friends, happy to go back to France, and happy to welcome French fellows in their home country, then it is how things should always go, isn't it? :)

Interests

Regarding food, I like cooking, mostly pastries. I also like to buy funny Asian food like basil-seed drinks, mochis, or coffee-coated peanuts! And I like sharing all this with friends. Apart from that, I go mad for fruits, and I like to discover exotic new ones! Guyane was a good mean to achieve this!

Regarding sport, I used to play football and I consider going back to it at one point before I'm too old for such crazy stuff (but I don't like watching professional players who, more often than not, deride that sport by simulating and arguing with the referee, to justify the millions they earn each month…). More generally, I like the collaborative spirit, mixing some support to teammates and responsibilities towards them, of any team sport.
I also like skiing, hiking, swimming.
I came across dynamic yoga (Vinyasa) in 2017, and I really enjoy how it teaches your body suppleness, equilibrium, and strenght all at the same time. So I kept on practising it once a week, ending up leading the sessions myself. Now we have a weekly session with a few motivated colleagues, in the lycée.
In French Guiana I also discovered in the same way Thai boxing, and revised my judgment about combat sports. However I'm not practising it. Days are too short...
I also like dancing. I know a bit of rock'n'roll, and regularly go dancing in free sessions.

2023 was a quite efficient year in terms of activities :
I started acting classes, which I really enjoy! :)
Wishing to go back to danse, after some rock'n'roll a few years ago, I started swing (lindy hop and charleston), and met there some new very good friends!
And I started singing in a choir!

I also like card and board games. Among the latter I'm fond of Crazy Time, Gobbit, Codenames, Decrypto, Dixit, When I Dream, Cranium, Time's Up, Mr Jack, Colt Express, Takenoko, "Agent Trouble", Bang/Katana, Jungle Speed; and I've got a keen attachment to collaborative ones like Hanabi, Magic Maize, Pandemic, Forbidden Island, Ghost Adventure, Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, and the series of Unlock Escape Games! i also started Role Playing Games in 2023, and managed to recruit a good number of my friends to that :D. By the way, as you are reading this, I let you know that starting your request with "Hello Thomas who lives in a small flat," will make me more likely to give you a quick and positive answer! ;)

I like studying, learning, discovering new things, and making connexions with what is already in my head. I like popularisation of science, and I often read PourLaScience (French edition of Scientific American). I also read from times to times "Le Monde Diplomatique", a left-wing French monthly newspaper.
To me, the act of teaching and learning is very crucial. I get the intimate feeling that education is the keystone beneath most of the current major problems in the French society. As a result I am very interested in pedagogy. I do believe that a teacher's main role is to help his students to learn, and that we have to know and understand both our students and human thinking mechanisms to carry that out properly.
I like words, and languages. I get real pleasure from looking for the sense, translation, or etymology of a given word. I like speaking English or Spanish to improve myself, or learning bits of other languages! And I like writing, telling stories to a friend in a letter, looking for a good way of transcribing my holiday accounts in a travelling logbook, finding the right words for a short poem, or putting on paper some fantasy scenarios that come to my mind.

Of course I love travelling! I am a naturalist at heart, so I like to discover new plants, new animals or amazing geological formations! That's why I overwhelmingly enjoyed the huge Australian and American National Parks!! And that's a reason why I spent three years living in the middle of the Amazon forest, and almost 5 months visiting the South of Chile. :)
As for cities, I like the cosy silence which cradles you while meandering your way through the streets of some small town at night or at dawn, when there is hardly anyone to be seen. But I also like to hear frank jokes and bursts of laughter, seeing people enjoying their moment, like on those Roman places at night, where you feel life concentrates, springs, and warmly splashes you as you slowly glide amidst people...
Big cities can be a magnet for me if they are home to cultural places or events. If not, then I'll expect you to show me how it feels to be a citizen and enjoy the hidden gems of that place! ;)

• animals
• culture
• dancing
• education
• cooking
• cheese
• politics
• reading
• music
• piano
• hiking
• camping
• snorkeling
• skiing
• swimming
• geology
• history
• science
• eating
• nature
• plants
• museums
• climbing
• rock'n'roll
• yoga vinyasa

Music, Movies, and Books

I am definitely not picky regarding music, providing that the rhythm is entertaining and that the lyrics are not that stupid… I usually don't like techno and electro/trans. I don't listen to rap music very often, but I don't dislike it.
Among others, I particularly like: Ed Sheeran, Bastille, Imagine Dragons, Fun, Katy Perry, Pink, Adele, Billy Talent, and for the French guys: J.J. Goldman, Francis Cabrel, Alain Souchon, Renan Luce, Kyo, Volo, Tryo, Les Fatals Picards, Pep's, Grégoire, Fréro-Delavega, Mickael Miro, Calogero, Luke, Manau, Fauve, Ycare, Hoshi, Giedré.
I like playing the piano, and listening to Ludovico Einaudi! :) But I'm still in the phase of thinking one day I'll try to learn properly how to play it...

I don't like horror films... probably because I'm rather imaginative! XD And I don't subscribe to deliberately violent films, as I don't see the point in showing everything on a big screen...
I like cartoons, for instance some old Disney movies, The Princess and the Frog, Tangled, The Incredibles, The Boxtrolls, The Book of Life, Dragons, Wall-E, Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted, Moi, moche et méchant, Howl's Moving Castle, The Boy and the Beast... :)
I also like action films. To me Casino Royale is the best 007! The Last Samurai and Gladiator send shivers down my spine. Some Fantasy or SciFi doesn't spoil it: The Fifth Element is one of my very favourites! Gattaca, Minority Report, The Island, Matrix and Inception are great! And I care for old ones too, like Farenheit 451, or Back to the Future! Then a good Western or an Indiana Jones can make it too!
A realistic or dramatic film from times to times: Dead Poets Society, Le Nom de la Rose, or Cyrano de Bergerac! And some comedies of various genres: Les Tontons Flingueurs, The Naked Gun, Valentine's Day..., put an easy smile on my face! :) Last but not least, I am a huge fan of OSS117! During my PhD, with a colleague who suffered the same pathology, we would quote Jean Dujardin at least 5 times a day... Though I haven't seen the third opus because everybody told me it was shit.
Then, generally speaking, as you would have noticed, I've not frequented cinema for the three years I spent in French Guiana, and have not recovered a real cinephile activity since I returned... I also developed during this time some kind of allergy towards the 17 opuses of Avengers and cie that are monopolising the screen and some minds... By the way, as you are reading this, I let you know that starting your request with "Hello Thomas who lives in a small flat" will make me more likely to give you a quick and positive answer! ;)

I used to play video games quite a long time ago. I will always remember a few ones with melancholy: Ratchet and Clank, Final Fantasy (the IXth is the best to me!), Fire Emblem, and on top of that Kingdom Hearts!
I don't read mangas, neither do I watch animes, except for Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, that I found excellent, and Black Butler!

Regarding books, I am a fervent Fantasy reader. And I like to go through the very large panel of subclasses that lie inside it: exhilarating Frey for steampunk; Les Lames du Cardinal, Temeraire, and Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell for uchronies; Acacia, The Northern Lights, and Ewilan for more epic fantasy; The Tawny man, The Empire Trilogy, and Bartimeus for character stories; Gaiman's chiselled irony in Neverwhere and Stardust; The City and the City, and La Horde du Contrevent for truly unclassifiable ones! The book that introduced me to Fantasy was Silverwing (K. Oppel) which delighted me as a child! Through The Lions of Al-Rassan (G. G. Kay), I fell under the spell cast by its thorough historical settings and its main characters emitting such powerful auras.
Finally I utterly love Sanderson's magic systems and plot twists; Lynch's Gentlemen Bastards, their presences and flourished arguments; and Rothfuss' lyricism and sense of the right word.

As for comics, I used to read mostly French humorous ones, like Gaston Lagaffe and Achille Talon. Later, in French Guiana, I went back to it for a while, with for instance Okko, Ewilan, and Sept.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

In the Karijini National Park (Western Australia), I gambolled through a rather long canyon, wearing a very discreet flashing-red underwear, because my guide book stated: "You might at some points get your feet wet", which I thought was quite underestimated when I saw people lifting their shoes over their head to keep them out of the water...
I'm heartily happy that I did choose to go ahead without overthinking about my "style". When I reached the end of the accessible part of the canyon and saw a bunch of people wearing helmets, front lamps, ropes, and one-piece suits, I thought that being ridiculous definitely doesn't kill you, and may open funny horizons! :)

Teach, Learn, Share

I know some things about Biology and Geology, and I'm always happy to try to answer questions, whether they are theoretical or they come from direct experience in the field. Then I'm curious to look and ask other people for new answers when I don't manage to build a satisfactory one! :)
I'm more than happy to speak Spanish, all the more than my level has well grown up those past years, through travels to Peru, Argentina, Mexico, Spain, Chile, and Colombia.
I would also be glad to learn how to cook one or two specialities from your home country. :) In return I can give you advice regarding yummy French desserts, places in Paris where to buy nice food, or where to go out for a decent meal!
I love discussing about good Fantasy books! And I can probably recommend you a few ones that may take you away! Although the list of books I want to read is awfully long..., I'd be happy to append one or two new good entries to it (the more convincing I'll find you, the higher it'll sneak into my list!). ;) By the way, as you are reading this, I let you know that starting your request with "Hello Thomas who lives in a small flat" will make me more likely to give you a quick and positive answer! ;)
And of course we can talk about foreign countries, exchange experiences and tricks about the places where you'd like to go, or the ones that you've already enjoyed... :)

What I Can Share with Hosts

I am quite fond of food, so if you get along with me on that point, and if I come to you from France, I'd be happy to bring you a French speciality, according to your tastes and the distance I'm travelling from! We can also try to cook something together, some sweet stuff maybe? :)

When I go visiting a new place, I am quite flexible regarding my activities, but I'll for sure go:
1. trying food in a few restaurants;
2. strolling around a city with a map and some advice/recommendations from city dwellers, sometimes getting lost and reaching unexpected sites, I also like to wander at night (when climate and people don't discourage me from doing so);
3. visiting a few museums if they are worth it;
4. hiking in natural parks (or elsewhere), looking for animals, plants, or rocks, or climbing anything for a nice panorama, whether it be nature or city landscapes.

I would say that I'd be happy to have you accompanying me at some point on the first two activities, if you feel like it!
Then I'd rather do the third one alone, unless you are in love with one of your museums, and in that case I would be glad to learn about it directly from you. :)
Regarding the last point, if you are decently fit, or if you are a zoologist/botanist/geologist at heart (or more!), your company on a hike would also be a pleasure to me! :)

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, England, Germany, Guyana, Hong Kong, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Suriname, Sweden, Switzerland, United States, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Australia, France, French Guiana