Epilogue

My first trip to France was incredibly rich because of the people who shared it with me along the way. Without them, I was a tourist, lost mainly in the superficial. With them, I was a guest viewing a new world from the inside. I’m honored by, and grateful to, each of them.

Merci beaucoup!

Ceren (right) with Childhood Friend Iris

Ceren is on her way to San Francisco in a couple weeks for her first visit to the USA. She wants to learn two more languages: German and Spanish. I think she’ll continue traveling for another decade, and that our next meeting will be in an American city.

Amaury and Sandrine

Amaury and Sandrine have been together for 15 years and now are raising a new baby. I sensed they love the idea of coming to Alaska one day, but I predict I’ll see them again in Lille before seeing them in my land. I’ll keep reminding Amaury about our deal where he stops smoking while I learn French. He’ll be fit physically, and I’ll be fit linguistically.

Sabine

Sabine longs to move back to Fairbanks, Alaska, where she spent a couple years attending college, falling in love with a place called “home”. She doesn’t have a visa option to return, and she’s entered a new career as a teacher in Stuttgart. Her roots are going down. But, she’s still young, single, and highly motivated. I predict she’ll find a way back to Alaska. (Come on Sabine – I know you can do it! Don’t settle for something less than what you want in life.) I’ll probably see Sabine first in Stuttgart again, but eventually I predict we’ll meet at her home in Alaska.

Erik and Dalia

Dalia yearns to return to Sydney, which was her home for a couple years prior to this past March. Australian visas are hard to come by though, so Dalia’s back-up/intermediate plan is to spend a year in Canada starting next summer, working in and experiencing that new culture. She also wants to come visit me in Alaska, with Yacine. I predict I’ll see her again in France first.

Messaouda

Messaouda and Jean-Pierre are preparing to sell their house and relocate to Bordeaux. They are lonely in Pra-Loup; their home of 25 and 45 years respectively. Many of their friends have died or moved on and the younger generations are not returning to keep the community vibrant. Jean-Pierre, who is 70, expressed he may only have 5 good years left. I’m proud of them for making such a hard decision, and I wish them luck on their new adventure.

Yacine and Dalia

Yacine is motivated to see Australia, as Dalia has. He is very curious and resourceful and a businessman and traveller by nature. I predict he’ll find the courage to move to Australia for a year, and that I’ll see him, Salah, and Momo again in Algeria and Morocco.

Dimitri

Dimitri’s living the alternative lifestyle of a French surfer right now. He’s young (24) and resists the conventional ways of consumption and career. As they say in Australia: Good on ya! I think Dimitri will travel extensively in his life, and that I’ll see him again either in France or in South America. Dimitri relates to some of the sentiments of Chris McCandless from the story “Into the Wild”, and I’d love to have him in Alaska to show him “The Magic Bus”.

Marie-Helene and Bernard

Bernard showed me personal photos of his mountain flying adventures from the past 25 years with a sentiment that life has passed so fast. I see Bernard looking back 25 years from now with a completely different set of photos (which haven’t been taken yet) and expressing the same sentiment. I predict I’ll see Bernard again in Alaska soon and hope he brings Marie-Helene along too.

I will return to France. When I do, I’ll know the language. Most French seemed to enjoy the opportunity to practice their English with me. I’ll flip that scenario around next time.

I used four cameras: A Nikon D7000 fixed with a 16-35mm lens (for general stills and video), another Nikon D7000 but fixed with a 70-200mm lens (for telephoto), my iPhone (for self-portrait stills and video), and a GoPro Hero (for wet environment stills and video). On average I spent about 2-3 hours per day creating each blog article (acquiring and editing photos, writing and proofing, uploading, etc), and that time usually came out of my sleep schedule.

I never did get around to comparing USA, France, and Australia. That's okay. The trip was really about the people, a much more interesting focus.

I'm a music connoisseur, always looking for new work. But the only new song I claimed on this trip was one from Germany. So, ironically, it will be the theme song for Première Expérience de la France: Revolverheld - Halt dich an mir fest

Here's a link to the video from Jour 13, when a young Algerian woman in Marseille fell in love (with me): It was a set-up

That’s a wrap.