Hello there! We are a young couple from the US (Hannah) and France (Baptiste). We have lived in many places around the world and now find ourselves living in France. We consider ourselves open-minded, happy, and open-minded people. We love to hike, explore new places, eat and cook good food, play music, and much more !

Baptiste: my name is Baptiste, and I am 29 years old.
I am fascinated with traveling. I just love exploring and discovering new places, new people, new lifestyles, new cuisines, new things. I was born in Bayonne, in the South-West of France and I grew up in the countryside in a village called Marcheprime (southwest of France as well) until I was 14. Then I moved to Bordeaux, southwest of France again. When I was 17 years old, I spent a year in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (USA) as an exchange student in High School. That experience is what totally confirmed my flair for traveling. Since then, I have kept traveling, and lived between the US and France, with three more years in America: one as a teacher in a French immersion elementary school in Minnesota, one as a student at Willamette University in Oregon, and one as a graduate student in Eugene, Oregon, at the University of Oregon.

When I came to the university of Oregon, it was with the idea to settle in the US, but I was too drawn to the rest of the world to do this, so I went on a world tour with Hannah and then moved to Vietnam. Now, we're coming back to the US :-)

Hannah: My name is Hannah Miles, and I am 27 years old. I am a positive and energetic person who feels most fulfilled in life when surrounded by wild nature and a good community of friends . I try to take time each day to observe and appreciate the little things. I caught the travel bug back in 2008 when I traveled to Norway, and have been exploring the world ever since then. It is a beautiful privilege to live and learn about so many different ways of living, experience the kindness of strangers, and see new places.

PHILOSOPHY

Baptiste: My motto in life is "Life is Good, if you make it good" (not a very complex motto, is it?). I believe that very small things accumulate to build what is called happiness. And this is why I think that life, overall, is really good. There are plenty of nice people in the world, plenty of nice sites, plenty of great things to do, etc. Of course, this doesn't mean that the world cannot be improved (because I think it definitely can, and even should, be improved) but overall, life is good. And I always tend (and try) to look at the positive side. I do emphasize the second part of the motto, though, because I think that it belongs to anyone to make their lives good. Happiness is something individually built, with the help of a collective or in spite of an un-cooperating collective. Either way, and as respectful of the world and of the community as I must be, it belongs to me to find and do what makes me happy.

Also, I don't consider myself French. I am officially French, and I wouldn't reject Frenchship, but I consider myself a citizen of the world. France is not my country, the world is my country. The world in its entirety is the place I live in.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

In 2013-14, we both traveled around the world together for 10 months, in about 10 countries.
What we remember most from our travels is our experiences with our couchsurfers. Couchsurfing has helped us move beyond tourism towards cultural explorers. We've stayed with wonderful people, some of whom remained friends with us, and couchsurfing has helped us meet locals and understand our host cultures.

We hope to give back by hosting. We hosted a few times in Vietnam and that was really fun. Now we are living in France and would be happy to host again when we can !

Interests

We are interested in:
- traveling, exploring, discovering
-hiking
- teaching
-meeting new people
-spending time with friends
-yoga
- cooking/baking
- writing/reading
- sustainable organic gardening
- the natural environment (caring, appreciating, and protecting it)- most of the outdoors, escepcially hiking (we looove hiking), canoeing, riding bicycles, caving, rock climbing, running etc.
- philosophy
- jumping into cold bodies of water (Hannah)
-Singing and creating music with others
- taking pictures- arts, museums, concerts (classical music, world music, and the like), operas, ballets, other live shows, other cultural events

• arts
• culture
• writing
• singing
• concerts
• environment
• cooking
• recipes
• baking
• yoga
• running
• gardening
• reading
• traveling
• music
• classical music
• world music
• outdoor activities
• hiking
• canoeing
• spelunking
• rock climbing
• teaching
• tourism
• beaches
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

Baptiste: as far as music is concerned, I like classical music, world music (especially Arabic, African, and Indian music, pop music, etc.) There are two reasons why I might like a song, and they are seldom simultaneous in my case: one, because I like the sound of it, two, because I like the lyrics (when there are lyrics) or what the song reminds me of.

For books, I like fantacies, mysteries, short stories, experimental types of fiction, non-fiction, adventure stories.

I'm really not a big movie person. I probably go to the movie theater once a year, if even that, and would probably have a hard time even turning a TV on.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Baptiste: if I had to select the best trip that I ever went on so far, it is my very short trip (3 days) to Martha's Vineyard, a small island along the coast of Massachusetts (USA). I went in the winter, which is just dead tourist season, meaning that there are nobody but a few locals on the island, and it is exactly what I was looking for. I went there to travel, but also to find inspiration for a short story I was writing. That trip turned out to be my archetype of the perfect trip: adventure, being hosted by an open-hearted/minded person, who turned out to be a published writer, finding there inspiration for my short story, with the romantic ideal of that beautiful island with its beautiful coasts, its beautiful forests, and its beautiful beaches, cliffs, lighthouses, hills, etc.

Hannah:
In New Zeland, sitting on the edge of a cliff with my best friend at the northern most tip of the north Island, and there we watched the Tasmanian sea and the Pacific ocean collide. Magic.

Teach, Learn, Share

Baptiste: because I like cooking and baking very much, I have created a website with plenty of recipes. A lot of them are my creations, others are traditional US or French recipes. The link is www.cuisine-de-reve.com

Hannah: Always happy to share good conversations, stories, and time to show you around my area. I can teach you some Kiswahili if you're ever interested as well as a bit about organic gardening. I am always up for making and sharing music with others.

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Belgium, Benin, Bolivia, Canada, Chile, Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Honduras, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Singapore, Spain, Tanzania, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

France, United States, Viet Nam