"Here comes the sun..." CesVT's Profile

Feeling lonely at the Sacré Coeur?

Although, as most Parisians, I was not born here but in Grenoble, in the Alps... (Photos of the French Alps) I moved to Paris aged 17 for my studies... which I flunked (or, more precisely, gave up)... Apart from a couple of months in Germany both in 1987 and 1990, a couple of months in the States and Canada in 1989, a few months back in Grenoble in 1990 and about 4 months in Ireland in 1991, I've been living in Paris ever since... I love Paris, but mostly when I have time on my hands and can enjoy it as a tourist... which I haven't done in a while... I'm not sure I want to live here forever, though... May be that thing about turning 40: the things you haven't done (like actually living abroad), the quality of life (getting tired of the commuting, the crowd, the noise, the tiny apartment), this feeling that it's 'now or never'...
Well, until I 'find my way' (the new one), I can still enjoy the cafés, the bookstores and the concerts...
And my passion: traveling!

First glimpses of the world...

My first glimpse of another country was... Italy! I was 7 but can still remember the smells (the cologne-scented soap in my first hotel room, the sticky fig 'milk' from the tree by the bungalow...), the disorientation climbing up the tower in Pisa and the old lady at the souvenir stand who offered me a silver bracelet, the fascination with Pompei and the volcano, the largest pizzas in the world... and rushing back home because of a cholera epidemic! Then my parents took us to Spain, the Riviera, Barcelona, Roman ruins... My next trips were as a teenager - I was sent to England twice to study English, then Wales... I think that's when I caught the 'bug'!! Later on, I was sent to Germany a couple of times (before actually working there a couple of summers in my twenties)...
And then it went on... ;-)

Bruno, me & Little House in the Mountain

As kids, my brother Bruno and I got to spend a lot of time outdoors... My parents had built a small cabin in a tiny remote hamlet in the Alps, about an hour's drive from Grenoble... We spent week-ends and holidays there, surrounded by mountains... and very few humans! (French Alps)
Also, in the summer, we'd often get to spend time with our family in Burgundy, both in the Saône-et-Loire and the Nièvre departments - real rural areas! (BurgundyTourism)
So we both ended up with a passion for nature... Unfortunately, my brother 'left us' in 2001, and he never got to realizing his dreams of going to Scotland and Ireland... Maybe I can enjoy it for both of us, and I'm sure he would have loved other destinations I've been to or I'm dreaming of! :-)

'The Way of the World', by Nicolas Bouvier

Reading is a family disease! From as far as I can remember, I can see my grand-parents reading, my parents reading, my brother reading, my own books, and the thrill of going to the old little bazar in our mountain village (a few miles from the hamlet!) where they had EVERYTHING, kids books included, the newspaper & magazine store by our first appartment, the library when I was a teenager, the Latin Quarter bookstores as a student, and, these days, either the Fnac in La Défense, the nice brand new bookstore round the corner here in the 11th arrondissement, WH Smith near la Concorde or... the Internet! Not to mention all the wonderful places you 'bump into' around the world - I sent myself a case of books from Alaska, if it can give you an idea... ;-)
Here, the cover of L'Usage du Monde - The Way of the World -, the book Swiss writer Nicolas Bouvier is most famous for... (Wikipedia page on Bouvier with quotes and links) A jewel of a writer, so full of images, depth, humour and sensitivity, here retracing the trip he took with a friend in 1953, driving a small Fiat all the way from Geneva to Afghanistan... (Telegraph Book Review)

Little Jade & friend at play

Well, I'm not sure I should mention this one, as my passivity and laziness don't allow for much progress in this area... Always been interested in images, but I never really make the effort, never really try, except for the occasional course... As in most other areas, I like to keep things simple and can't take too much technique... probably because I'm so tired already just being a complicated person, I hear some say (other voices saying 'Yeah, you're a woman' ---> you're out!)... ;-)
Maybe I just don't have the patience... Still, I'd like to take the time again-let's see if I eventually do!
Of course children are always fun to observe - Here you have Jade, left, the daughter of a Brazilian friend married to a Frenchman, and a little friend of hers, herself half-Corean!

I LOVE music and going to concerts! My tastes are pretty eclectic and revolve around rock, the blues, soul, and also 'old time' jazz (NOT free jazz!)... Last year's concerts have included (besides a few shows at clubs to see 'local' bands and French harmonicists): Springsteen , Joe Bonamassa, Bjorn Berge, The Presidents of the USA, Buddy Guy, The Stray Cats, Bryan Adams, Flogging Molly...

A mischievous friend in Dawson City

I have been concerned with the environment all my life - probably for the same reasons I inherited a passion for nature in the first place... I'm also one of those people who think humans are animals just like 'everybody else', and that animals are sensitive beings we have a way of mistreating I really don't care for...
So, a year ago, after many years of thinking about it regularly and not taking the step, and after one horrifying video too many, I simply decided that I now was a vegetarian! My ideal would be to be vegan, but I've been finding it pretty hard, especially as soon as I have to eat out...

Et pour les Terriens français, un site porteur d'espoir et d'action à consulter, celui de COLIBRIS, MOUVEMENT POUR LA TERRE ET L'HUMANISME:
Colibris