CURRENT MISSION

Meet people, get to know them and the place they live in, make my guests discover the wonders of Paris.

ABOUT ME

Hi ! I'm a 28 years old guy, and I live in Paris with my boyfriend. I've been living in Paris for 11 years now.

I figured the "average" everyday life doesn't produce quite enough opportunities to meet new people, especially from abroad, so with my boyfriend we've decided to join couchsurfing.com in order to fix this.

I'm not such a big fan of nightclubs (yet I definitely like to attend a good party at a friend's place), I prefer to spend some quality time with people around a fresh beer or a good glass of wine in a cosy place, or at a concert or an art exhibition. I'm also quite into discovering new cities by simply wandering downtown for hours, loosing track of where I am in the maze of streets.

I'm fascinated by cities with large historical, architectural and artistic background. It's always a pleasure to visit major monuments and museums.

I really like going to restaurants, discovering new and original flavors (in meals or in wines), and I enjoy cooking myself (especially pastry). If you host me, I'd be glad to cook you a "chocolate Charlotte" ;-) ! [see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_%28cake%29]

I's also a real pleasure every time to get to know better the new people I meet, especially if they're not from the same region of the world as I am ! Getting to know the "little differences" between my place (France) and other countries is always interesting and funny. Everytime I've traveled abroad (during holidays, or for my job), getting the locals to talk about their way of life, their opinion about major topics, etc. has always been one of the best parts of the whole adventure.

Also, me and my boyfriend are currently planning a Round-the-world trip for 2014.

PHILOSOPHY

Seriously, I don't see how the global attitude one tries to have towards life could be summarized into one small sentence...

But still, I can think of a few philosophical mottoes I've heard and I think bear great wisdom (that doesn't mean I manage to fully implement them in my life) :
- €œIt's not because things are difficult that we don't dare; It's because we don't dare that things are difficult.€ - Seneca
- Fortune favours the bold
- €œI am a human being, I consider nothing that is human alien to me.€ - Terence

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

We're in Paris and we're hosting at the moment. We have a tiny flat in Paris, right next to the metro station "Guy Moquet" on line 13. Our sofa is confortable and can be turned into a double-bed. If you're looking for a quiet place in Paris for a few nights, we'd be glad to accomodate you and show you some interesting sites in the city.
We hope we'll be able to find some couches during our trip in 2014 :)

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Me and my boyfried had a few hosting experiences (see profile thomas.in.paris or look for Thomas Hézard - all used to be done from his account -), only great moments! Hope to have more experiences soon :)

Interests

I love music : I've studied the piano for 10 years in a music school as a child (classical music). Nowadays, I take singing lessons (classical music as well, haute-contre repertoire).
Yet I also like many many kinds of music and groups (not just classical music !).

I love cinema as well (big admirer of Stanley Kubrick, Stephen Daldry, Darren Aronofsky, Tom Ford, Pedro Almodovar, Philippe Lioret, Ken Loach, Adam Elliot, Pierre Schoeller, etc.)

As other hobbies : cooking, video games, reading, hiking, art exhibitions

• arts
• singing
• concerts
• dancing
• cooking
• recipes
• chocolate
• wine
• beer
• partying
• movies
• video games
• reading
• socializing
• music
• classical music
• piano
• hiking
• track and field

Music, Movies, and Books

Films which really impressed me :
- The fountain (Darren Aronofsky)
- Requiem for a dream (Darren Aronofsky)
- A single man (Tom Ford)
- A beautiful mind (Ron Howard)
- L'exercice de l'Etat (Pierre Schoeller)
- Je vais bien, ne t'en fais pas (Philippe Lioret)
- Mary and Max (Adam Elliot)
- The hours (Stephen Daldry)
- MILK (Gus Van Sant)
- 2001 : a space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrik)
- Barry Lindon (Stanley Kubrik)
- Amadeus (Milos Forman)
- Paranorman (Sam Fell and Christ Butler)
- The secret of Kells (Tom Moore)
- The adventures of Priscilla, queen of the desert (Stephan Elliot)
- La mala educacion (Pedro Almodovar)
- Todo sobre mi madre (Pedro Almodovar)
- District 9 (Neill Blomkamp)

Books, Plays and Comics which really impressed me (mostly french ones, sorry) :
- Les particules elementaires (Michel Houellebecq) - book
- Le roi des Aulnes (Michel Tournier) - book
- Le desenchantement du monde (Marcel Gauchet) - book
- L'oeuvre au noir (Marguerite Yourcenar) - book
- Les Bienveillantes (Jonathan Littel) - book
- Lorenzaccio (Alfred de Musset) - play
- MacBeth (William Shakespeare) - play
- Le mariage de Figaro (Beaumarchais) - play
- Le sommeil du monstre (Enki Bilal) - Comic
- Rapaces (Dufaux, Marini) - Comic
- Complainte des Landes perdues (Dufaux, Rosinsky) - Comic

Composers who really impressed me :
- Nowadays : Antony Hegarty, Woodkid, 2 doors cinema club, Sigur Ros, La Roux, Just Jack, ...
- Haendel, Mozart, Bach (classical and baroque period)

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

During my Freshman year in "Ecole d'ingénieur" (I was 20), with 3 friend we planned a small humanitarian mission in Burkina Faso (village of Tengrela, near Banfora. See ==> http://heliotopia.mines-paris.eu/electrification.html). We spent 4 weeks there, got all sick due to too strong anti-malaria treatments :p, but the human experience was overwhelmingly good : we experienced the typical everday-life in a small African village, we drank green tea at night at a farmer's place between a donkey and a cow, under the stars, I personally gave a few singing and dancing lessons to the kids of the local school just for fun, and above all we managed to secure what would become our future project : we got the agreement from the local electricity provider to later install an electric transformer which would supply power to the village's dispensary. This was fully realised a few years later.

visited 19 states (8.44%)Create your own visited map of The World or website vertaling duits?

Teach, Learn, Share

If you're interested, I can give you a few tips about singing : how to warm up, a few useful exercises, how to mobilize your throat to obtain a plain, vigorous and harmonious voice.

I would also be delighted to cook something with you and teach you a few pastry recipes I often use and like.

And I would definitely love to talk with you about your way of life, how you see things from your perspective in your country, what kind of expectations you have. It's always been one of the best part of the adventure, when visiting a foreign region or country, to hear locals describe themselves and their land, the experiences they've had, etc. I think this is a very interesting way to have a look on one's own life and principles with a different perspective.

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Cuba, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, India, Italy, Luxembourg, Morocco, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Peru, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States, Vatican City State

Countries I’ve Lived In

France