I'm currently on a bike tour around France and Europe. I started my trip last July from Paris. I cycled around Ile-de-France, Normandy, Pays de la Loire, Centre region and Burgundy. After crossing Switzerland, I've just arrived in Italy.

I took a gap year from my job where I teach French as Second Language, Math and Computing in an organisation that helps unemployed people (often illetterate people) to find a job.

What I put in this travel is discovering France, travelling light, slow and eco-friendly, reflect on my last three hyperactive years in Paris, read more, write more, practice more meditation, enjoy present, taking into account past and future and get surprised !

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Couchsurfing is another great way to share and meet people especially in bigger towns and cities where people say hello less frequently to each other than in the country. I love to see what people enjoy in the place where they are living, I would love to share a good meal, thoughts and moments of life.

Interests

Before I got into cycling, i used to hike a lot. I first started when i was young going on some short expedition near the Loire river in home place in Burgundy. I got more into hiking when i lived and travelled in Austria, Australia and New Zealand. Hiking was the first step for me to taking more time for myself, enjoying a slow motion travel and connecting with the environment. When i go on several-day-trip, i love to go camping and sleep outdoors, even in cooler conditions (with a good sleeping bag). In French, we say that we sleep "à la belle étoile", which litteraly means "under the beautiful star". I love this phrase.Astronomy has always amazed me.

When i was in Paris, I took part for three years in an artistic and linguistic project to help migrant people learn France and develop communication skillss. We created a show that was performed many times in Paris and even in Avignon ! Volunteer teachers and learners of French were all together performing in the show including story telling, singing and collective choregraphy. It was an uncredible human adventure !

• writing
• traveling
• cycling
• hiking
• astronomy
• volunteering

Music, Movies, and Books

Music :
Mumford & sons, Broken Back, Joyce Jonathan, Eddy de Pretto, AaRON, Calogéro, Juliette Armanet, Léo Ferré, Christine and the Queens, Ben Mazué, Indochine, Zazie, Zaz, Lady Gaga, Queen, Beyoncé, Rihanna, Charles Aznavour, The Police, The Cranberries, Laurent Voulzy, Alain Souchon, Eddie Vedder, Pink Floyd, Ibrahim Maalouf, Imogen Heap, Passi, Shaka Ponk, The Doors, Amy Macdonald, Alan Walker, Radical Face, the Killers, Benjamin Biolay, Katie Melua, Bleachers, Marron 5, Keane, Julien Doré, Vianney, Iamamiwhoami, Arcade Fire, Sia, P!nk, Passion Pit, Bon Iver, Sigur Ros, Racing Glaciers, Belle & Sebastian

Movies:
Into the Wild (Sean Penn), La Belle et la Bête (Cocteau), Duel (Spielberg), Printemps Ete Automne Hiver... et Printemps (Kim Ki-duk), Le Voyage de Chihiro (Miyazaki), Black Swan (Aronofsky), Fantastic Mr Fox (Anderson), Jumanji (Johnston) Requiem for a Dream (Aronofsky), Rocky Horror Picture Show (Sharman), A Clockwork Orange (Kubrick), The curious case of Benjamin Button (Fincher), Seven (Fincher), Le Roi Lion (Disney), Les Invisibles (Lifshitz), Les Amours Imaginaires (Dolan).

Books:
Le petit Prince (Saint-Exupéry), La modification (Butor), Les lances du crépuscules (Descola), La nausée (Sartre), En attendant Godot (Beckett), Tristes Tropiques (Strauss), Siddartha (Hesse), Iliade (Homère), Les Métamorphoses (Ovide).

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

In 2011, I was on exchange in Melbourne for my undergraduate degree. One of my best friends was doing her masters thesis in Aborginal studies. My friend had met some Aboriginal people a few months earlier in Darwin. She planned to meet them again. So, we took a plane to Darwin. Unfortunately, the Aboriginal people that she had met were gone ! So, we sat near Lake Alexander, my friend was playing the guitar, almost crying because she didn't know how to write her thesis. At that very precise moment, a man came to us. Was he touched by my friend ? Probably. In any case, he invited us to join his group of friends who was sitting behind the bush. This is how a great experience started. We stayed two weeks living with the community listening to the Dreaming stories of the Yolngu people often around a camp fire. My friend and I received Aboriginal names. My friend was Murryil (white dove) and I was Garaïka (eucalyptus tree).

Countries I’ve Visited

Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Australia, Austria, Peru