High in altitude

Buenos dias,

first of all, we wish you a merry Christmas,
hope you had a joyful celebration,
full of love and share.

We are now in Creel, southwest of Chihuahua, a nice little town,
in the high sierra, in the traditionnal land of the Tarahumara people.

Yesterday we left Chihuahua, our host from there drove us to a gas station out of town, and we asked for a ride to the people who were filling up their tanks.
Three different cars later, we arrived to our destination: Creel.
In Creel we walked a bit and knocked on the door of a house that gave us a good impression,
and asked for hospitality.
An older woman and her family welcomed us, she seemed very happy to have us.

It's the first time that we hitch-hike and ask for hospitality in Mexico,
and that first impression is wonderful, our way of traveling seems to be in the mentality.

As you know, we travel this way because what we want is to understand the way people live wherever we go,
we try to share a moment of their life,
we speak about how it is where we come from,
and they speak to us about how life is for them.
And we deeply believe in the goodness of human soul.

Life is beatiful

Seb and Aubin

Hola Mexicoooo!

Hello you all!

It's really good to feel the sun shining and heating your skin.
It feels good to be back to summer in december.

Aubin got across the border on the 15th of december,
he took a bus from El Paso to Chihuahua, a bit more than 200 mile south.
He had contacted somebody through the website www.couchsurfing.com
who was able to give him a place to stay.

I left Durango, CO, past sunday, the 14th of december,
the very inspirative Dr Reyes Garcia gave me a ride from there to Albuquerque,
and his daughters gave me a place to stay for the night.
The next morning I began hitch-hiking from Albuquerque to El Paso,
the snow was there to tell me: "Man, that's your time to go south"
Got the message.

After 2 cars and 1 truck, I got to El Paso.
The truck driver was very interesting, he had a assiociation that is helping people who have autism.
And want everybody to be aware of the fact that the vaccin that we receive contain mercury,
which is recognize as being very toxic.
Since the vaccin have been obligated, the rate of children getting autism have dropped from
1 for 10'000 to 1 for 150.
If you want you can have a look at the website:
putchildrenfirst.org

In El Paso I was welcomed by Steven and his family,
that Aubin has also met through the website couchsurfing.com

The next day, tuesday, I took the bus from El Paso to Chihuahua,
30$, it's not bad.

In Chihuahua, I joined Aubin, and got also welcomed by the 3 couchsurfer who were welcoming Aubin.
Jorge, Ulises and Polo.
They're serial hosters,
they've been welcoming 96 travelers before us.

Chihuahua is a nice town,
about 800'000 people,
a quite desertic climate,
a beautiful cathedral,
and of course, a lot of people to meet.

Our plan now is to go west to the Pacific, go to see copper canyon, which is certain parts deeper and larger than the Grand Canyon.
Then, going south along the Pacific coast, and get back inland to the capital Mexico city.

We'll see what the path is going to give us.

Hope you have fun in this time of festivity.
And that you give a lot of love to your family, your friends, and your brothers and sisters human being.

Peace

Seb

Taos

Bonjour all of you,

I'm now in Taos, NM.

I wanted to com over there to check-out about these interesting houses,
the earthship.
These house are tending to be completely sef sustainable,
and are part of it is made of recycled tires, cans, bottle.

I'll talk a bit more about that whenever I find the time for it,
but for the moment you should check these videos on youtube that tells about it:
a first one very basic from CNN:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDRstVYF7wA

and two other ones more in detail:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9jdIm7grCY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rlrhxqat_6A&feature=related

Have fun watching that.

Seb

Durango, Santa Fe

Bonjour
we're now back on the old way,
I'm in Durango, CO,
and Aubin is in Santa Fe, NM.
We arrived around here on the 7th,
with one big goal,
selling the car to keep on going.

We got hosted by friends I met on my first passage in the area,
one of the most beautiful area I've ever been through.
Being so close to the high mountains and so close to the wonderful desert.
Going from white and green to orange, yellow, grey...

The place where the Anasazi heart still beats.

Peace
Seb

Wyoming

Hello,
wer'e now in Jackson, WY,
we've been crossing so many wonderful landscape through Idaho, Montana, and now Wyoming.
We've been around bisons, elk, moose...
Some wonderful people welcomed us everyday,
knocking on people's door and asking for hospitality is definitely the best way to travel for us.

We're now taking the direction of Colorado, and New Mexico.

Sorry for this very fast news,
we don't have much time...

We're too busy discovering....

Peace

Seb

Down to Mexico

Hello my friends,

after getting stucked in Seattle for more than two weeks,
nobody wanting to buy the car,
we finally decided to go back down south, the weather getting too cold to go across Canada hitch-hiking,
but more than that, the will of discovering something different than North-America.

It' s already been a year that we're in North-America,
it's time to change, this world is so big, so beautiful, and so interesting,
we need to be around another way of living now.

Yesterday, Aubin could go back into the states,
after explaining our motivation,
he got a visa till the 15th of december.

Now we need to decide which route we're going to take to go down south,
and we absolutely need to sell this car before entering Mexico.

By the way, if you know anybody who would be interested by a toyota 4runner V6 of 1993 with 170 700 miles for 3500$,
let us know.


What we're really excited about, is to be here in America for the election,
I think we're really lucky to be able to live this intense moment of American history.

I would lke to ask you something,
as we're here to discover, not to judge, but only to look at this world around us as a big family.
If you feel comfortable about it,
no obligation at all,
could you tell me which one of the candidates to the presidential election you feel represent you the best,
and explain me a bit why you think he would make a good representant of this country.
This will stay personnal,
and as I can't vote, I'm just looking this event as an external observator.


Thank you

Harmony

Seb

Back into the States

Hello my friends.

The queen of England welcomed us as we walked our first steps on the Canadian territory,
not the queen herself of course, but this wonderful picture in the hall of the customs office.

Vancouver island was one of these experience that you know you'll remember for a very very long time.
Through our peregrinations, we met Luke, when he heard we were doing this world travel, trying to see the world as our eyes would, he decided to show us what his eyes saw for years and years.

Luke grew up on this far west, the one where no roads bring, far on the west coast of Vancouver island.
To go there, you need to ride 1h30 on lugging road, then take your boat and surf the inlets waves for 45min.

One day, when my english will be good enough for me to write a book, I may be able to describe with the right terms what we experienced in this end of the world.
It was simply magical.
I'll always remember the colors, the grey, the green, the blue, the mountains, the ocean, the killer whales, the bears, the bold eagles, the sea lions, the sea otters, just all this harmony between forces, this magical endless.

Thank you Luke for this magical gift.

Thank you nature for your beauty.


We had to come back to America,
we made the choice to sell the car and keep on going hitch-hiking,
few reasons for that: too much money just flew away in gas expense,
but the more important,
being stucked into a canned box with four wheels isn't the best way to reach people,
from the unknown and the unsecure comes the faith.

The american border got harder than what we thought it would be,
I had no problem with visa, as I came back to France this summer, I have a new american visa till next march,
but Aubin, after spending six months in the USA, and only two weeks in Canada, the customs didn't want to let him in, saying that they didn't have enough proof that he was really living in France.
After lots of hour of discussion, they finally gave Aubin a five days visa,
just enough for him to come with me to Seattle, fix some few stuffs that had to be fixed on the car prior to be sold.
Aubin left yesterday and got back to Vancouver where he's hosted by Tracey and Cathy, very nice girls who hosted us already through couchsurfing.com.

I'll have to stay till the car is sold, then I'll join Aubin and we'll hitch-hike across Canada to the eastern coast.


By the way, if you have any contact in Canada, anybody who would be Ok to host two travelers.
Or if you know any place that is really worth it, please let us know.

If you know anybody around Seattle who would like a Toyota 4runner of 1993, let us know too.


Today, I had time to completely change the blog's aspect, if you could tell me what you think about it.
There is now a map showing where we are in the world, and where we have been through, as our roads where not the same in the USA, AUbin still have to draw his road down.

There are also some beautiful pictures of Vancouver Island, and all the rest of the trip on the blog, if you click on them you'll be able to see them bigger.

We've been putting some few videos on youtube.com
you can find them with the keywords: inspired wanders


Breathing is so good...

Peace
Harmony

Seb

Hello Canada

We arrived into the Hoh rainforest in the Olympic National Park Washington Thusday 23rd of September,
exactly a year and a month before we had first arrived in Cuba.

The morning was amazingly sunny.

After preparing ourselves for a long hike we finally started our 35miles round trip hike.

The plan was to hike all the way to the blue glacier which is part of the Olympus peak.

We arrived a mile to the end of the hike by 4:30pm

There was no way to continue we had to go back.

The view on the glacier was beautiful and the hike through the rain forest and the giant tree as well.

We arrived back to the car around 11:45pm after a 34miles hike our thought was only sleeping.

We slept in the car and left in the morning.

We arrived in the late evening in Vancouver Canada after we passed the border, luckily with no difficulty.

Tracey and Katie our host in Vancouver are very friendly and we already spend three night there.

This morning we took the ferry to Vancouver Island were we going to spend a couple of days here.

And the adventure continues.

Aubin

Green

Salutation,
it's so great to be surrounded by green.
On a side the ocean, and on the other, the green forest.
We arrived yesterday into Washington state.

We've been welcomed by Hal and his family in Sheridan,OR,
and watched our first football game, the high school game of his son Patrick.

Then we drove to Portland, big very nice city.
And through this great website: couchsurfing.com, we were welcomed by Tamara, Alice and Joey.
Nice time with our very funny hosts.

We're now going into the direction of Olympic nat. park, trying to stay dry into the rainforest.

We'll go through Seattle and then to Vancouver.

If you know anybody in one of these area who would like to host us, please let us know.

Green is great.

Peace
Harmony
Seb

New pictures

There are new pictures on the right below.
Don't forget to click on them to get them bigger.

On the road again (California)

Hello all of you.

We left San Francisco sunday with Aubin's car, in the direction of Vancouver.
His visa ends on the 26th of september, so we'll be in Canada for this time.

We're right now in Mckinleyville, a bit north of Eureka, CA.
We are hosted by some people through the website couchsurfing.
The two days before that we've been knocking on people's door, and we've been meeting really nice people.

We'll stay along the coast of the Pacific till Canada, it's full of fog, but so beautiful.

Contact us if you know peope who would like to welcome us.

Peace

Seb

Fly away

Hello all of you.

These past days have been a lot of emotion.

I've been learning few weeks ago that my grandma got a cancer, and was at the hospital.

Her sickness went worst and worst, and I decided the 3rd of july, while I was in Zion nat. park to come back to France to stay beside her.
I took a flight from San Francisco on the 15th of july.

Wednesday the 16th of July, I was in Paris, and I could hug my grandma tell her all the love I feel for her.

She must have been waiting for me,
she died saturday 19th of july, at 2:40am.

I'll stay for a while beside my grandpa,
he's completely shocked, and he needs help to recover.

My return flight to SF is on the 7th of september.

That was time for my grandma to fly away.
Thanks to her for all the love she provided to us.

The photo has been taken two years ago, from the left to the right: my sister, my father, my aunt, my grandma, me, and my grandfather.

Peace
Harmony

Southern Utah

Hello



my travel is still so wonderful.



I don't have much time so I'll do quick.



I've been through Durango,

then spent a day in the Mesa Verde nat park,

and then 4 days with a Navajo family on the Navajo nation, on southern-east Utah.

They were wonderful,

but the poverty on the nation is very sad,

they deserve much better than that.



Then I've spent a week in Moab,

and met some really amazing people who shared a lot with me.



Now I'm in Hanksville, UT,

tomorrow will be Capitol reef nat park,

then Bryce canyon

and the Grand Canyon, north rim.



I would like to share with you all the wonderful things that I live,

but I don't have time now,

so I'll keep that for me for a time.



Life is beautiful



Harmony



Seb

New Photos

Hello!

New photos have been added on your right under: across USA part.2
If you click on the photos, you'll be able to see them bigger.

By the way, a lot of new videos have been added on youtube,
keywords: inspired wanders
channel: chenapans vagabonds

Peace

Seb

New Mexico!

Hello!!!!

Such a beautiful travel...

So After San Angelo, my road went still west, trough Midland where I was hosted by Tom, I met him a bit after Austin during my lunch time, he was coming back home and he invited me to come to see him and his family in Midland.

Little by little, the horizon gets full of oil drill, the smell is sometime really inconvenient, and the panels with written: poison gas are pretty common at the entries of the ranches.

This really the desert nothing grows higher than 2 feet, it gives an impression of nowhere.

From Midland, I join Eunice, my first step into the land of enchantment, New Mexico, first impression, lot of littering, Eunice isn't really the best part of New Mexico, it's an oil city, nothing to attract tourism here.
But I'm happy, I'm in a New state, it's always nice to change.

This night searching for a place to pitch my tent, I'm received by to very nice persons who invite me to eat the biggest steak I've ever eaten and let me pitch my tent behind their trailer.

The next day give me my first big impression of what a desert can be when it lets it fire expend, I've to ride with a temperature of 103F degres,
and I'm surprise how much my body is able to get used to it environment.
I support very good this extreme temperature, my water don't, it gets very warm, but as my body is warm, it matches very good.
I learn to drink really a lot of water, I learn not to spend any strength for no reason, I learn that my body is able of adaptation anywhere...

A day before, I had a phone call, Steve and Gail, two persons who welcomed me in Gay Hill, right before Austin, and who I met at a grocery store, decide to come to join me on my trip for a few days, they love riding bikes, and they have a week of holidays.

I arrive in Carlsbad, I meet Joey and Bianca, who decide to let me sleep on their couch, two very nice young perons, around my age.
I meet Sophie and Consuela, two retired women, their energy and their love for life lead us into long and interesting discussion, we so much enjoy sharing together that Sophie make me meet almost all her family on the afternoon.

Steve and Gail come to join me in Carlsbad,
we go exploring the Carlsbad caverns nat. park, then Steve wear his tighty short and come riding with me to Roswell, this is a really hot and windy day,
but the wind loves us today, he pushes us on the right way.
At a certain point, we put the bikes in the car and finish the last 20 miles with the AC.

Steve and Gail are in the fifties, they live in Houston and work in oil companies.
Every weekend, they go on their country house, riding their bikes, chilling out.
Their house is on a bicycle trail, that goes from Florida to California, they are used to invite bikers to rest in their house, have a drink, sharing.

This couple really is amazing, they are still young and full of energy, and their thought are sometime closer to revolutionaries, I enjoy being around them.

The next day, we drive to Ruidoso, and from the mountain, everyone goes his own way, I become a lonely bike rider, and they go back to their oil work.
I want to thank them for everything, they gave me a hotel room for the two days we were together, they feed me most of the time, Steve rided with me, we laught a lot, we shared, I want to thank them for opening their heart like they did to the stranger I was at the first time...

After a night in Carizozo, I end up in Corona, bad weather day, it's raining, and when I hit Corona, the altitude, around 6700 feet, makes the degres go down to the 40's, oooohhhh, big changement, in three days, I drop from the 100's to the 40's.
I meet a wonderful family who invite me to eat, let me use their shower, and provide me some food for the next day.

From Ruidoso, the surrounding land became wonderful, between yellow deserts, green mountains, red dirt, Antelopes, bunnies, rattle snakes, beautiful sunsets, this land makes riding become a constant pleasure, when admiring takes all my thoughts aways, contemplation becomes being.

The night, I end up in Moriarty, small town, right on the historic route 66.
I meet LaShandra and Jessica, and Jessica's kids Joshua and Mercedes, they let me pitch my tent on their yard.
Jessica cooked me a dinner, and I want to thank them also a lot, because they are both very funny and nice people, it's pretty uncommon for two girls to welcome a traveler like me, so I want to say that these two women gave me a lot of trust, and I thank them a lot for that.

The next day, direstion Madrid, this little village right before Santa Fe, that became a ghost town at the of the 1950's, and was adopted by a community of hippies and artists in the middle 1970's,
this village is full of colors, full of life, full of sharing, people walk..., lots of artists, and a lot of free spirit people,
we can feel the ambiance of a community...

The next day, direction Santa Fe, a few days before, through the website:
www.couchsurfing.com , I contacted Trevor, who live in town, and is able to provide a couch for the travelers like I am, so I knew that this night I didn't have to find a place to sleep, good point.

On my road I see some Yurts on my left, traditional houses of the people in Mongolia, after hesiting, I decide to go speaking with the people who live there, I would like to know more about these houses.
This is how I met Jessica, she helps the owner of the house, and she is currently creating her own path.
She is one of these people who sometime seems like you knew them before meeting them.

So I end up in Trevor house, very nice guy, he's in a massage school, 32 years old, he has lived in Antartica (see the video: Trevor... on youtube, key words:inspired wanders) where he worked on the fueling, at the same time, another couchsurfer, David, is hosted by Trevor, David is riding his motorcycle across the country, he left his job in a bank and decided to be as free as the wind (see video:David... on youtube account).

Santa Fe really is a wonderful city, with it own ambiance, lots of arts, typical houses, latin vibe, surrounded by high mountains,
people say that Santa Fe is located in a very special place, where energies of the earth would join and create this very creative ambiance...

So here I am,
still having a wonderful trip,
still trusting completely in life,
living the moment,
no regrets for the past,
no fear for tomorrow.

Thanks for the one who makes me live this marvelous experience...

Harmony
Silence
Love

Seb

Growing like the nature

I arrived in this city of 100 000 people,
which is for me a big city, without having heard about it at all,
San Angelo, I didn't even know it existed.

But I don't know why, the name inspired me.

The persons who welcomed me in Melvin, Tx, just 60 miles before San Angelo knew somebody in San Angelo, so I wasn't really riding to the unknown.

On my road, about 10 miles before arriving in town, I got passed buy a truck that immediately stopped on the shoulder after passing me.
A guy goes out of the truck and ask me if I need a place to stay for the night,
that's nice, he doesn't know me and he directly ask me if I need a place to stay, this guy must know what it means to be alone on the road.
I could feel, and read in his eyes that he wasn't a bad guy at all just somebody who wanted to help and share stories and knowledge at the same time, his name is Paul.

Right before that, I got caught in a bad storm that obliged to stop for a while, and by the same way to lose time,
so he offered me to bring me to the house of Laurie, my nice hostess of the night and put the bike and the trailer in the truck.
Ok, let's ride some horse power....

Laurie, the friend of my nice host of Melvin,Tx, welcomed me in her house,
she lives in a nice area of San Angelo, and she welcomed me like a prince.

The next day I decided to go to see Paul,
we had time to speak during the car ride, and he explained that with four other people he lives in a small community by the lake, they have six houses, a garden, and a very nice message to share.

Paul has lived all around America, and lived a lot of different life in one, like it's common nowadays.
Now he decided to settle down in San Angelo, first of all because his daughter lives here, her name is Kalee, she's 9 years old and she's already an amazing girl, and then he decided to create this community.
Their purpose is to live from raw food that have been cultivated organically and with love,
I'm happy to see that some people care about the quality of what they eat.
They have their own garden, some pecan trees, and an access to the lake to get some fresh fishes.
For everything else, they have Austin, kind of holly place for healthy eaters, at 200 miles.

They try to create a connection with people all around the world who tries to get into raw food.
They also create raw chocolate that I have to admit, are really wonderful.

These guy try to live a conscious and healthy life, they choose to live the way that seems for them the closer to what we really deeply need,
and what I like is that they don't do it hided from other people or angry against anyone,
they try to spread the message that we don't have to live the way our society wants us to live,
they live without television,
they communicate with a lot of people, they are open to everyone.
They think we can help the world to improve!

I spent two days with them, eating only healthy and good food,
and I can say that the energy that it provided me was phenomenal.
I would like to stay longer with these guys and learn more from them,
but at the same time I really wanna be in Alaska by the summer,
so i have to leave tomorrow and go back to hit the road.
But I know for sure that I'm gonna be back in there,
living and growing.

They are located close to knickerbocker rd,
if you wanna go meet them,
if you wanna share with them,
learn another way of seeing nutrition and living.
They wanna spread the message, so ya'll welcome to come hang out with them,
living with them for a while or for a long term.
Contact me if you want I can give you Paul's contact
or go directly to www.livingjem.com.

They are actually doing a chocolate party on all the weekend of the 31st of may 2008.
Ya'll are welcome!

I did some videos that I'm gonna put on the youtube account, check it out, key words: inspired wanders

I think we can't change the world, but we can give him some solutions...

Freedom
Harmony
Love

Everything goes well

Bonjour!

I wanna tell that I love Texas!
Ok, I have to admit that it's hot, and the weather is sometimes completely crazy.
But excepted that, it's wonderful.

Passed Austin, I was in the hill country, beautiful, that remind me the country of south France, a lot of oak trees, very green, lots of beautiful flowers and of course very hilly.

My legs are getting more and more used to climb,
hope so, because this is the easy part,
the Rocky mountains are waiting for me.

First day I arrive in Spicewood, tiny village between Austin and Llano,
I arrive for worship time in the church of Christ, that's where I meet Daniel, the pastor and his wife Rachel, they invite me to have dinner and even offer me a comfortable bed.

Yesterday I arrived in valley spring, and was welcomed by Lory and Alan,
I just knocked at their door to ask where the pastors of the two little churches live, thay told me that the pastors are in holiday right and invited me to pitch my tent in their yard.

The land is getting drier and drier, the horizon is getting more and more flat, I see less and less trees, less and less flowers, more and more cactus.
I'm lucky, this is blooming season for the cactus, their sunny colors give me joy.

Today was very hot, and then, in the afternoon, some big dark clouds appeared far in front of me.
I ha to fill up my bottle so I went to knock at a door on the side of the road, I was welcomed by Debbie who told me that a tornado warning was set up for this area, and it's coming over us!
Debbie and her husband Ronnie offered me hospitality, tonight I ate some good hot dogs chili, and I'll sleep in a very comfortable bed, I'm like a traveling prince!

Thank to all my helpers!

Freedom

Seb

Austin, Tx

Hello y'all!

Wonderful week in this liberal Texas city.
I heard so much about Austin before coming in,
a very young city, with a lot of live music, and an alternative way of living, based on a responsible, conscious, durable way of living.
I had to see all that by my own eyes, of course.

I arrived past Sunday,
Aubin and Anthony, a friend from France, joined me Monday, after 29 hours of driving.
We were welcomed by Garret and Ian, then by Neel, some friend of Zein, an activist that I met in New Orleans.

I have to admit that Austin is a very interesting city,
first of all, it's one of the only liberal city in Texas,
the university is huge, around 50 000 students in the University of Texas in Austin.

Good points:
a lot of healthy food store,
a lot of co-op stores,
independent stores,
lots of place where you can just hang-out and speak about changing the world.
Many people group their strength together to create something different.

But something is missing,...

I could just feel that it's hard when you're so used to the traditional American way of living, to suddenly, live in a way where materialism is not the most important.

Bad point:
This city is not very bike friendly,
some few bike path, but you can feel that cars don't really want you on the road, and are not that much used to you.
Car still seems to be the one, the only way of moving.
I have to admit that the bus network is better than in New Orleans for example.

But for me, a city where people don't just live inside of their rolling houses (cars)
is a city where people try to open themselves to the surrounding ones.

I would you to check this new video called Texas Freedom Network that I've put on youtube, keywords: inspired wanders,
Garret is one of the member of this association who works for the separation of church and state.

I'm leaving in a few minutes,
going back to hit the road.

Thank to everybody who helped me in Austin,
especially Ian, Garrett, Joel and Neel.

Hope this city will keep going further in an opening, creative, durable way.

I'll take the direction of San Angelo, and the I don't know if I'll go through Odessa or Big Spring to go to Carlsbad, if you know these road please let me know.

Freedom.
Inspiration.

Seb

New Photos

Some new photos are available on your right.

Have a nice journey.

Freedom

Seb

Hello Texas

Good bye Louisiana!

I had a wonderful time in this diverse state,
learning about the injustice in New Orleans,
and about the love of music,
learning about the cajun history and, and the present of these cousins.
Learning about the Chitimacha indians, who are so inspirative about the way they live.
Seeing all this incredible nature of south Louisiana.
Thanks to everybody who helped me in Louisiana.
Hope to see you again.

I'm now in the big state.
First impression, cars make an incredibly loud noise here.
The accent changed also directly after the border.
Weather is perfect for me actually, from the 70's to the 80's
but cloudy and some small rain sometime.

I'm going to be in Austin sunday or monday I think,
Aubin and a friend from France are going to join me there,
we'll spend some days together,
and I'll hit the road again.

I'm actually in Cleveland, Tx,
a bit over Houston,
and tonight I may be in Conroe.

I'm actually surounded by huge forests,
and the shoulder of the road is a huge animal cemetery.

If you know New Mexico, and have some idea about the more beautiful roads to take.
Please let me know.

Freedom.

Seb

Vive la Louisiane

Hello!!!!!

I love Louisiana.
Since Ileft New Orleans, I have been able to test the Louisiana hospitality.
First I was welcomed by Doc, in Des Allemands,La, who feed me with a very good jambalaya that his grand daughter did.
Then I met the Chitimacha indians who close to Franklin, La.
Loonie, the tribe chief welcomed me in his house, all the tribe feed me, we had wonderful crawfish, everyone of them was so nice and welcoming.
Then I stayed in New Iberia, welcomed by Patrick,
I had Alligator, ribs, beans, I learned about coonass.
Then I moved to Lafayette for the festival international, 5 days of free music.
I arrived Friday 25th, and stayed till monday afternoon.
I was welcomed by Gwen, I met her through this website: www.couchsurfing.com
that provides for traveler, people space in their house, that's a wonderful community website.
I met a lot of very nice people, I was invited to eat everywhere,
I listened to great live music.
Lafayette really is a very nice town.
Yesterday I met Arlene and Luc in Abbeville, and they invited me to stay at their house, they offered me boiled crawfish, and a vey sweet bed.
They made me a tour of Abbeville today, and showed me the pan of the giant omelette they prepare in Abbeville with more than 5,000 eggs.

I thank ya'll for your help, for everything you shared with me.

Tonight I will be in Pecan island, in the nature.

I will leave Louisiana in few days, but I know that my trip here will be unforgettable, because of ya'll wonderful people I met here.

See ya

Sebastien

Kamp Katrina

When I arrived in New Orleans and needed a place to sleep, the wind blowed me to Mrs Pearl.

Mrs Pearl lives i the Bywater, this wonderful neighborhood of New Orleans, she's native american, but more than everything she's a child of the universe.

Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans on august 2005.

Many people became homeless because of this incredible strength of the nature.

When she came back to New Orleans, around the 15th of september 05, Mrs Pearl opened her house to displaced workers, she and her husband David welcomed people they didn't know, because they thought that when somebody needs help, anyone has to give what he can.
They wanted to keep their neighborhood alive...

They put tent in the yard, they let people sleep in the living room.

Now almost 3 years after the hurricane, their house is still opened to everyone who needs a place to live.

Few weeks ago police came to her house and told her that she couldn't house people in the yard, quality of life is not reasonable they said...
So is that better to let people live in the street?

Some people lost their house because they were not able to fix it, the government took their house, some people who just own a house but didn't have money to fix it became homeless.
Why did the government took these property, what's the reason?

Mrs Pearl is really somebody incredible, she welcomed me, shared her life with me, she helped so many people,...
I wanna say her thank you and I wish that solutions will appear fast.

A movie was made about her and Kamp Katrina, this movie won an award and is called: Kamp Katrina.
you can see some part of it on:
http://myspace.com/kampkatrina
also on:
http://www.linktv.org/video/1793

Mrs Pearl needs some help, to feed the resident of the house, to be able to build small houses in the backyard, to fix her house that was damaged by the hurricane.
If you want you can bring her some food or send her some money.

She needs also help to let the truth appears to everyone,
if you wanna film or report about what happens, you can contact Mrs Pearl at:
orleansbywater@aol.com

You can directly come to see them at 712 alvar str
70117 New Orleans
or call: 504 948 0166

I just wanted to thank the sunshine.

On the road again

Hello all of you.

I't's time for me to go back on the road.

I didn't think I would have stayed so long in New Orleans,
but I felt in love with this city,
and I had the chance to have met good people who showed me a very interesting face of this city.

I want to thank them a lot for their help.

I changed a bit the route I will take to go to Vancouver:
first I'll go straight to Austin,TX along the gulf of mexico coasts,
then I'll go to Carslbad, NM
Roswell, NM
Albuquerque, NM
Santa Fe, NM
Moab, UT
go in all the beautiful national parks,
bryce canion, zion, grand canion,...
Tonopah, NV
Yosemite nat park, CA
lake Tahoe, CA
lassen volcanic nat park, CA
Eureka, CA
and then all along the Pacific coast
to Vancouver, BC, CANADA.

That will be wonderful...

I leave tomorrow morning, with the sunrise...

If you know very good these places,
if you have some advices,
some warnings,
if you know some people who could help me,
could welcome me,
please write me about it on:
sebastienroevens@gmail.com

Hope you're doing wonderful

Sebastien Roevens

An eye on on New Orlens

Hommage to Mr Christophe Porche,
he lives in the bywater, this rainbow neigborhood on the 9th ward of New Orleans.

I wanna speak about him because the emotion we can feel looking at his pictures are incredible.
He gives us the emotion, the power, the strength of New Orleans.

He changed my way of seing photography.

I thank him for that.

To get emotioned go on:
www.porche-west.com

If you'll be in New Orleans for jazz fest, he'll be exposing, chck the information on the website.

Tanya and Dorise, my two angels.

I wanna tell a bit two wonderful musician, two wonderful artist, two inspiring persons, two friends, two wonderful human beings.

It's now one month and a half that they welcome me, first it was Tanya, and then Dorise,
they let me live with them,
they make me feel this city, through them I meet a lot of people, through them I'm surrounded by an incredible harmony of music,...

To live, they play music in the street, in front of the famous "cafe du monde", every day they share their talent with passing by people.

When you watch them playing music, it only takes two minutes to feel how much they live music, how deep in their skin, flowing in their blood, vibe, melody, harmony is a part of them.

We're not speaking about concert for 20 000 people, we're not speaking about 1 000 000$ disc, we're not speaking about MTV,...
..., we're just speaking about music.

I just wanted to thank two angels...

If you wanna learn more about two artists:
http://www.myspace.com/tanyandorise

Tanya made a Cd by her own, she wrote the texts, she recorded every single instrument, she sang,
her CD and her life are on:
http://www.tanyahuang.com/

International school of Lousiana

Hello,
I think this school deserve that we speak about it.

I've met along my road people that have learned french during high school and sometime more,
most of time I was able to realise something,
it wasn't very useful because most of these people were not able to say "my name is..." in french

But now I'm hopeful...
This international school of Louisiana, based in New Orleans, provides foreign language lessons in a way that 20 years later, students will still remember the learned language.
Students can chose between french and spanish.
Every single lesson, math, history, geography...
are teached in the choosen language.
The teacher teach their mother language.

The school begins at kindergarden and finish in eighth grade.

It's a public school, meaning completely free.

A friend of mine teaches in this school, she needed help to bring the children to the museum, I was lucky to meet these futuristic kids.
And I have to admit that they speak very good spanish and french.

I thank all the children of Ms Irma's class,
you were all very nice.

I had a wonderful day.

You're changing america's face.

Beginning

Welcome to our blog!

We'll try to share as much as possible our great experience, we learn a lot, we see many beautiful things, we meet great people,
if we can give you a bit of our happiness, we'll become even more happy...

Today I'm (Sebastien) in New Orleans, in this beautiful city, destroyed by the sky, but living again by its soaring hearts.

I've spent one month in France, I needed to come back, that was very useful.
I'll leave in few days, and continue my beautiful trip in bicycle, in direction of Vancouver.

Happily for me we're getting rid of the winter, that means I'll certainly be able to ride a bit norther than what I though, GREAT!

Aubin is actually in France for two weeks, he'll come back on the 27th of march to Key West, and he'll then search for a cheap car to join me in Vancouver.

Here are the fresh news!

Hope your day is beautiful...