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Africa: A Heartfelt Love for a Continent
“When the Whites came to Africa, we had the land and they had the Bible. They taught us to pray with our eyes closed: when we opened them, the Whites had the land and we had the Bible.” Jomo Kenyatta (p.7)
The Maggi cube, an unchallenged hegemony, and so much more
“The hopeless continent,” headlined The Economist, a British magazine, in July 2000 about Africa. Eleven years later, the same magazine headlined “Africa rising” instead. Images of Africa in the prosperous North constantly oscillate between apocalyptic scenarios and enthusiastic projections. A key issue with such images lies in the generalization they entail. If you look at the continent, considerable contrasts emerge depending on space and time. It’s no surprise that a region of the world encompassing such diverse ecological zones, maintaining such varied ties with other continents, comprising nearly fifty nation-states in sub-Saharan Africa alone, and characterized by a great diversity of languages, belief systems, and historical paths, doesn’t share a single destiny.
And yet, for many people outside Africa, as well as for many Africans, the continent constitutes a single entity, defined by criteria such as skin color, a colonial past, poverty, and the art of survival. Until now, these perspectives were generally accompanied by the idea that Africa had to—or should have—followed a single path together, sometimes called development, sometimes modernization, sometimes liberation, then a market economy. None of these paths delivered on their promises.
The two writers Alain Mabanckou and Abdourahman Waberi—one from Congo, the other raised in Djibouti, both long settled in France and now professors at renowned North American universities (Los Angeles, Washington)—have had enough of pessimistic scenarios: “We are aware that Africa is in the world and the world is in Africa. The same goes for all other continents, as our destinies are inextricably linked for better or worse. We refuse to see Africa as a reservoir of misfortunes or a continent cursed by atavistic misfortune and characterized by ethnic conflicts. [...] It’s this passionate flame we wanted to capture in a book [...] a kind of stroll through African cultures, without any demands, each letter of the alphabet leading us to a notion, a practice, a concept, a moment in history, literature, painting, politics, economics, cuisine, etc.” (p.10-11). Africa, they write, is on the verge of “imposing a signature, a style, a way of being in the world and in relation to the rest of the world.” (p.11) To put words to the continent’s diversity and dynamism, the two authors created a “rambling ABC,” a kind of portrait—or more precisely, a mythography—that lets you see and feel the pulse of a vast continent whose cultural power is unfolding before our eyes. Once marginalized or even mocked, the voice and importance of the Continent in global affairs are now undeniable” (p.11), containing over a hundred entries, mostly concise, written in a relaxed and casual style. The optimistic, even exuberant tone is set from the brief introduction. The duo of authors wants to “sing a love song to the cultures of our continent, to its inhabitants past and present, to its exceptional resources and its spectacular globalization despite a certain pollution that still clouds our skies due to the unmatched duration of dictatorships in some of our regions.” (p.12) In doing so, they don’t want to be too distracted by today’s Afewerki-Biya-Bongo-Déby & Co. ...
Of course, you’ll find tributes to great precursors like Frantz Fanon (“[...] it was a love story and admiration that wasn’t dimmed by the four decades separating his birth from ours. Let’s add that we were born while the native of Fort-de-France had left the world’s stage four years earlier, in the prime of life” p.141), Mongo Beti (“You must read and reread Mongo Beti, a genius who used his fame to support often just causes in Africa, like defending oppressed groups. His place is already in History. His oppressors, like the dictators Ahmadou Ahidjo and Paul Biya, can’t compete in the same category” p.64), the Malian Amadou Hampâté Bâ
(“Posterity remembers him mainly as an tireless defender of African cultures. His plea for the collection and preservation of traditional African knowledge remains a major event for all men and women of good will. One day in 1960, at the UNESCO podium, the native of Bandiagara sounded the alarm: ‘[...] Since we’ve admitted that the humanity of each people is the heritage of all humanity, if African traditions aren’t collected in time and written down, they’ll one day be missing from the universal archives of humanity.’” p.51),
Kwame Nkrumah, “one of the founders of Pan-Africanism, father of Ghana’s independence” (p.239), as well as the historian Cheikh Anta Diop, the writer, poet, and politician Aimé Césaire, and the economist and thinker Samir Amin, but also very warm tributes to certain contemporary African intellectuals like Souleymane Bachir Diagne and Achille Mbembe
(“A few years ago, in dominant economic circles, a rumor often resurfaced, usually disguised as a cold and scientifically proven analysis: Africa is useless. It’s a burden for the rest of the human community. With its 2% share in world trade, it would disappear from stock market radars without anyone noticing. So? Maybe it’ll be pulled up by other continents. Wanting to surpass itself is a crazy bet for Africans, they concluded. Arrogant or clueless, President Nicolas Sarkozy declared before an audience of students and teachers at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar: ‘The African man hasn’t entered history enough [...] He only knows the eternal repetition of time marked by the endless repetition of the same gestures and words.’ That was in 2007. For decades, armed only with reason, an intellectual often steps up to debunk prejudices, lazy readings, and dishonest frameworks used as false fronts by those who, like Nicolas Sarkozy or former journalist Stephen Smith, out of ignorance, contempt, or condescension, distort African reality. This intellectual is none other than the historian and political scientist Achille Mbembe. This heir of Frantz Fanon, Amílcar Cabral, Jean-Marc Ela, and Fabien Eboussi-Boulaga was born in 1957 in Cameroon, in the Bassa region. Marked early by the upheavals of a fratricidal war, Achille Mbembe became the guardian of the memory of martyrs. After brilliant studies in Paris, he went on to teach at the best American universities, but the call of the Continent was stronger than anything else. In Dakar, he once directed CODESRIA (Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa) before joining the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. Even though the author of *Critique of Black Reason* (Éditions La Découverte, 2015) spends a few months at Duke University in North Carolina, his observation post remains South Africa. From Johannesburg, Achille Mbembe scrutinizes Africa and the whole world. A lucid observer with an elegant and generous pen, Achille Mbembe knows how to blend big and small history: ‘I was born one day in July, as the month was drawing to a close. It was 1957, in that part of Africa recently named ‘Cameroon,’ a memory of the wonder that seized Portuguese sailors in the 15th century when, sailing up the river near Douala, they couldn’t help but note the presence of a multitude of crustaceans, and named it *Rio dos Camarões*, meaning ‘River of Shrimp.’ I grew up in the shadow of this nameless land, since, in a way, the name it bears is only the product of someone else’s astonishment: a lexical mistake, if you will.’ From this mistake or wound, he made leaven, a springboard to compose a rich work, recognized worldwide. To denounce barriers and barbarians too. But that’s not enough. Among his peers in circles of thought and action, Achille Mbembe passionately and consistently defends human dignity and the beauty of the world. In doing so, he fulfills the mission Frantz Fanon entrusted to him.” (p.227-229),
as well as entries dedicated to lesser-known artists and intellectuals, like the French journalist and activist Rokhaya Diallo, daughter of Senegalese and Gambian parents, or the Ethiopian filmmaker Haile Gerima, who has long lived in the United States. Other names from politics, sports, music, art, and literature: Kofi Annan, p.36; Barack Obama, p.243; Thomas Sankara, p.277; Ousmane Sow, p.285; Yambo Ouologuem, p.250; Léopold Sédar Senghor, p.282; Muhammad Ali, p.30; Nuruddin Farah, p.146; Salif Keita, p.203; Ahmadou Kourouma, p.206; Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, p.236; Winnie Mandela, p.224; Kylian Mbappé, p.226 ...
The authors, who resolutely commit to a “mythography” (p.11) of Africa, also pay special attention to local social movements, cultural events, and aspects of daily life. *Y’en a marre*, “which also meant ‘we’re fed up with sitting on our hands’” (p.320-321), emerged about a decade ago in Senegal as a citizen movement of peaceful resistance and symbolizes, the authors emphasize, the fact that African youth are increasingly fed up “with the political circus deployed in Africa since independence, as our parents would say, ‘since the White man left’...” (p.321). A full entry is dedicated to the Maggi bouillon cube, which has flooded African markets for about forty years and enjoys immense popularity (“It’s everywhere in Africa, from Dakar to Djibouti, and from Tangier to Cape Town. It’s in every pot, every stew. Little hands put it in every sauce, every local or adapted dish. An unchallenged hegemony! You’ll find it in diasporas too. The culinary strolls in Paris, in the [...] neighborhood” p.90). Critics blame it not only for impoverishing the aromatic diversity of local dishes but also for being harmful to health. And yet, “he poorest Africans, those who eat only once a day, a few spoonfuls of white beans and a ball of *foufou*, for example, are the most fervent users of the magic cube.” (p.92-93)
For *fonio*, “the new trendy cereal. [...] From the millet family, fonio is probably the oldest cereal cultivated in West Africa, and mainly in its sub-Saharan part, for millennia. [...] Easy to grow, water-efficient, fonio grows everywhere except on clay soils. Long neglected because it was considered the poor man’s crop, fonio is now a source of pride for the farmers who cultivate it and cherish it like the apple of their eye” (p.156-157), the authors immediately offer a detailed recipe, letting the reader know that “e can’t resist sharing this fonio with chicken recipe from Mali with you:
Ingredients: 1 chicken 3 large ripe red tomatoes 4 tbsp tomato paste 4 large onions 1 garlic clove 1/2 cup oil 2 Maggi cubes or salt 2 large carrots 1 turnip 1 large cabbage 2 large potatoes 1 celery stalk 1 packet pre-cooked fonio 4 okra (or okra powder) salt, pepper
Preparation: 1. Prepare the sauce: wash and cut the chicken. Peel the onions, garlic, and vegetables. 2. In a pot, fry the chicken pieces. 3. Dice the onions, tomatoes, carrots, and turnip very small and add them to the pot. 4. Add the tomato paste, salt, and pepper. 5. Simmer for 15 min, then add 2 L of water and the cooked chicken pieces. 6. Simmer for 30 min, then add the crushed garlic and celery, plus the cabbage cut into 4 and the potatoes cut in half. 7. Prepare the fonio: cover it with warm water, let it rest for 15 min, and cook it over low heat. 8. In a small pot, boil the okra and crush them. 9. Mix the crushed okra with the cooked fonio, then salt. Serve hot.” (p.158-159)
The comedy *Black Mic Mac*, released in French theaters in 1986 and addressing France’s increasingly restrictive immigration policy at the time, also gets an entry, as do *Tintin in the Congo*, the popular comic, and *Jip’s Café* (“[...] a little Africa in the heart of Paris, with passersby stopping to admire the ‘ambianceurs’ on the dance floor or attend the cultural events offered by the place” (p.194), an African establishment in Paris that Alain Mabanckou already immortalized in one of his novels.
The duo of authors also tackles thorny subjects like jihadism (p.119), the Rwandan genocide (p.272), the CFA franc (p.82), and dictatorship (p.110). While the two strike the right tone here, many entries leave a slightly bitter taste. Two examples: why doesn’t the text on Barack Obama mention the great disappointment of many people in Africa, who expected more from the African policy of the first U.S. president with African roots than just occasional warm words? Why do the comments on Winnie Mandela gloss over the fact that she was a highly controversial icon of the anti-apartheid movement due to her involvement in kidnappings, acts of torture, and murders of alleged apartheid collaborators? Instead, there’s a compassion that brings tears to the eyes: “She was often reduced to a secondary role, the wife of a great man” or “When victory came, she didn’t taste its fruits. Divorced, isolated. She would never be a ‘first lady’ in an evening gown, posing before a bed of chrysanthemums. They’d keep her far from the circles of power” (p.224-225). At this point, I would’ve liked the authors to take a slightly more critical stance...
That said, these “weaknesses” (if you can call them that) shouldn’t overshadow the book as a whole. It remains an informative, sometimes very entertaining, and often even original work in its own way.
Book information (the original French and the German translation):
Alain Mabanckou/Abdourahman Waberi. Dictionnaire enjoué des cultures africaines. Fayard, 2019. Alain Mabanckou/Abdourahman Waberi. Der Puls Afrikas. Eine Liebeserklärung von A bis Z. Reclam, 2022.
Hery
The Maggi cube, an unchallenged hegemony, and so much more
“The hopeless continent,” headlined The Economist, a British magazine, in July 2000 about Africa. Eleven years later, the same magazine headlined “Africa rising” instead. Images of Africa in the prosperous North constantly oscillate between apocalyptic scenarios and enthusiastic projections. A key issue with such images lies in the generalization they entail. If you look at the continent, considerable contrasts emerge depending on space and time. It’s no surprise that a region of the world encompassing such diverse ecological zones, maintaining such varied ties with other continents, comprising nearly fifty nation-states in sub-Saharan Africa alone, and characterized by a great diversity of languages, belief systems, and historical paths, doesn’t share a single destiny.
And yet, for many people outside Africa, as well as for many Africans, the continent constitutes a single entity, defined by criteria such as skin color, a colonial past, poverty, and the art of survival. Until now, these perspectives were generally accompanied by the idea that Africa had to—or should have—followed a single path together, sometimes called development, sometimes modernization, sometimes liberation, then a market economy. None of these paths delivered on their promises.
The two writers Alain Mabanckou and Abdourahman Waberi—one from Congo, the other raised in Djibouti, both long settled in France and now professors at renowned North American universities (Los Angeles, Washington)—have had enough of pessimistic scenarios: “We are aware that Africa is in the world and the world is in Africa. The same goes for all other continents, as our destinies are inextricably linked for better or worse. We refuse to see Africa as a reservoir of misfortunes or a continent cursed by atavistic misfortune and characterized by ethnic conflicts. [...] It’s this passionate flame we wanted to capture in a book [...] a kind of stroll through African cultures, without any demands, each letter of the alphabet leading us to a notion, a practice, a concept, a moment in history, literature, painting, politics, economics, cuisine, etc.” (p.10-11). Africa, they write, is on the verge of “imposing a signature, a style, a way of being in the world and in relation to the rest of the world.” (p.11) To put words to the continent’s diversity and dynamism, the two authors created a “rambling ABC,” a kind of portrait—or more precisely, a mythography—that lets you see and feel the pulse of a vast continent whose cultural power is unfolding before our eyes. Once marginalized or even mocked, the voice and importance of the Continent in global affairs are now undeniable” (p.11), containing over a hundred entries, mostly concise, written in a relaxed and casual style. The optimistic, even exuberant tone is set from the brief introduction. The duo of authors wants to “sing a love song to the cultures of our continent, to its inhabitants past and present, to its exceptional resources and its spectacular globalization despite a certain pollution that still clouds our skies due to the unmatched duration of dictatorships in some of our regions.” (p.12) In doing so, they don’t want to be too distracted by today’s Afewerki-Biya-Bongo-Déby & Co. ...
Of course, you’ll find tributes to great precursors like Frantz Fanon (“[...] it was a love story and admiration that wasn’t dimmed by the four decades separating his birth from ours. Let’s add that we were born while the native of Fort-de-France had left the world’s stage four years earlier, in the prime of life” p.141), Mongo Beti (“You must read and reread Mongo Beti, a genius who used his fame to support often just causes in Africa, like defending oppressed groups. His place is already in History. His oppressors, like the dictators Ahmadou Ahidjo and Paul Biya, can’t compete in the same category” p.64), the Malian Amadou Hampâté Bâ
(“Posterity remembers him mainly as an tireless defender of African cultures. His plea for the collection and preservation of traditional African knowledge remains a major event for all men and women of good will. One day in 1960, at the UNESCO podium, the native of Bandiagara sounded the alarm: ‘[...] Since we’ve admitted that the humanity of each people is the heritage of all humanity, if African traditions aren’t collected in time and written down, they’ll one day be missing from the universal archives of humanity.’” p.51),
Kwame Nkrumah, “one of the founders of Pan-Africanism, father of Ghana’s independence” (p.239), as well as the historian Cheikh Anta Diop, the writer, poet, and politician Aimé Césaire, and the economist and thinker Samir Amin, but also very warm tributes to certain contemporary African intellectuals like Souleymane Bachir Diagne and Achille Mbembe
(“A few years ago, in dominant economic circles, a rumor often resurfaced, usually disguised as a cold and scientifically proven analysis: Africa is useless. It’s a burden for the rest of the human community. With its 2% share in world trade, it would disappear from stock market radars without anyone noticing. So? Maybe it’ll be pulled up by other continents. Wanting to surpass itself is a crazy bet for Africans, they concluded. Arrogant or clueless, President Nicolas Sarkozy declared before an audience of students and teachers at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar: ‘The African man hasn’t entered history enough [...] He only knows the eternal repetition of time marked by the endless repetition of the same gestures and words.’ That was in 2007. For decades, armed only with reason, an intellectual often steps up to debunk prejudices, lazy readings, and dishonest frameworks used as false fronts by those who, like Nicolas Sarkozy or former journalist Stephen Smith, out of ignorance, contempt, or condescension, distort African reality. This intellectual is none other than the historian and political scientist Achille Mbembe. This heir of Frantz Fanon, Amílcar Cabral, Jean-Marc Ela, and Fabien Eboussi-Boulaga was born in 1957 in Cameroon, in the Bassa region. Marked early by the upheavals of a fratricidal war, Achille Mbembe became the guardian of the memory of martyrs. After brilliant studies in Paris, he went on to teach at the best American universities, but the call of the Continent was stronger than anything else. In Dakar, he once directed CODESRIA (Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa) before joining the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. Even though the author of *Critique of Black Reason* (Éditions La Découverte, 2015) spends a few months at Duke University in North Carolina, his observation post remains South Africa. From Johannesburg, Achille Mbembe scrutinizes Africa and the whole world. A lucid observer with an elegant and generous pen, Achille Mbembe knows how to blend big and small history: ‘I was born one day in July, as the month was drawing to a close. It was 1957, in that part of Africa recently named ‘Cameroon,’ a memory of the wonder that seized Portuguese sailors in the 15th century when, sailing up the river near Douala, they couldn’t help but note the presence of a multitude of crustaceans, and named it *Rio dos Camarões*, meaning ‘River of Shrimp.’ I grew up in the shadow of this nameless land, since, in a way, the name it bears is only the product of someone else’s astonishment: a lexical mistake, if you will.’ From this mistake or wound, he made leaven, a springboard to compose a rich work, recognized worldwide. To denounce barriers and barbarians too. But that’s not enough. Among his peers in circles of thought and action, Achille Mbembe passionately and consistently defends human dignity and the beauty of the world. In doing so, he fulfills the mission Frantz Fanon entrusted to him.” (p.227-229),
as well as entries dedicated to lesser-known artists and intellectuals, like the French journalist and activist Rokhaya Diallo, daughter of Senegalese and Gambian parents, or the Ethiopian filmmaker Haile Gerima, who has long lived in the United States. Other names from politics, sports, music, art, and literature: Kofi Annan, p.36; Barack Obama, p.243; Thomas Sankara, p.277; Ousmane Sow, p.285; Yambo Ouologuem, p.250; Léopold Sédar Senghor, p.282; Muhammad Ali, p.30; Nuruddin Farah, p.146; Salif Keita, p.203; Ahmadou Kourouma, p.206; Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, p.236; Winnie Mandela, p.224; Kylian Mbappé, p.226 ...
The authors, who resolutely commit to a “mythography” (p.11) of Africa, also pay special attention to local social movements, cultural events, and aspects of daily life. *Y’en a marre*, “which also meant ‘we’re fed up with sitting on our hands’” (p.320-321), emerged about a decade ago in Senegal as a citizen movement of peaceful resistance and symbolizes, the authors emphasize, the fact that African youth are increasingly fed up “with the political circus deployed in Africa since independence, as our parents would say, ‘since the White man left’...” (p.321). A full entry is dedicated to the Maggi bouillon cube, which has flooded African markets for about forty years and enjoys immense popularity (“It’s everywhere in Africa, from Dakar to Djibouti, and from Tangier to Cape Town. It’s in every pot, every stew. Little hands put it in every sauce, every local or adapted dish. An unchallenged hegemony! You’ll find it in diasporas too. The culinary strolls in Paris, in the [...] neighborhood” p.90). Critics blame it not only for impoverishing the aromatic diversity of local dishes but also for being harmful to health. And yet, “he poorest Africans, those who eat only once a day, a few spoonfuls of white beans and a ball of *foufou*, for example, are the most fervent users of the magic cube.” (p.92-93)
For *fonio*, “the new trendy cereal. [...] From the millet family, fonio is probably the oldest cereal cultivated in West Africa, and mainly in its sub-Saharan part, for millennia. [...] Easy to grow, water-efficient, fonio grows everywhere except on clay soils. Long neglected because it was considered the poor man’s crop, fonio is now a source of pride for the farmers who cultivate it and cherish it like the apple of their eye” (p.156-157), the authors immediately offer a detailed recipe, letting the reader know that “e can’t resist sharing this fonio with chicken recipe from Mali with you:
Ingredients: 1 chicken 3 large ripe red tomatoes 4 tbsp tomato paste 4 large onions 1 garlic clove 1/2 cup oil 2 Maggi cubes or salt 2 large carrots 1 turnip 1 large cabbage 2 large potatoes 1 celery stalk 1 packet pre-cooked fonio 4 okra (or okra powder) salt, pepper
Preparation: 1. Prepare the sauce: wash and cut the chicken. Peel the onions, garlic, and vegetables. 2. In a pot, fry the chicken pieces. 3. Dice the onions, tomatoes, carrots, and turnip very small and add them to the pot. 4. Add the tomato paste, salt, and pepper. 5. Simmer for 15 min, then add 2 L of water and the cooked chicken pieces. 6. Simmer for 30 min, then add the crushed garlic and celery, plus the cabbage cut into 4 and the potatoes cut in half. 7. Prepare the fonio: cover it with warm water, let it rest for 15 min, and cook it over low heat. 8. In a small pot, boil the okra and crush them. 9. Mix the crushed okra with the cooked fonio, then salt. Serve hot.” (p.158-159)
The comedy *Black Mic Mac*, released in French theaters in 1986 and addressing France’s increasingly restrictive immigration policy at the time, also gets an entry, as do *Tintin in the Congo*, the popular comic, and *Jip’s Café* (“[...] a little Africa in the heart of Paris, with passersby stopping to admire the ‘ambianceurs’ on the dance floor or attend the cultural events offered by the place” (p.194), an African establishment in Paris that Alain Mabanckou already immortalized in one of his novels.
The duo of authors also tackles thorny subjects like jihadism (p.119), the Rwandan genocide (p.272), the CFA franc (p.82), and dictatorship (p.110). While the two strike the right tone here, many entries leave a slightly bitter taste. Two examples: why doesn’t the text on Barack Obama mention the great disappointment of many people in Africa, who expected more from the African policy of the first U.S. president with African roots than just occasional warm words? Why do the comments on Winnie Mandela gloss over the fact that she was a highly controversial icon of the anti-apartheid movement due to her involvement in kidnappings, acts of torture, and murders of alleged apartheid collaborators? Instead, there’s a compassion that brings tears to the eyes: “She was often reduced to a secondary role, the wife of a great man” or “When victory came, she didn’t taste its fruits. Divorced, isolated. She would never be a ‘first lady’ in an evening gown, posing before a bed of chrysanthemums. They’d keep her far from the circles of power” (p.224-225). At this point, I would’ve liked the authors to take a slightly more critical stance...
That said, these “weaknesses” (if you can call them that) shouldn’t overshadow the book as a whole. It remains an informative, sometimes very entertaining, and often even original work in its own way.
Book information (the original French and the German translation):
Alain Mabanckou/Abdourahman Waberi. Dictionnaire enjoué des cultures africaines. Fayard, 2019. Alain Mabanckou/Abdourahman Waberi. Der Puls Afrikas. Eine Liebeserklärung von A bis Z. Reclam, 2022.
Hery
Back in Tunisia (live account)
Hi there,
On this forum, I shared my first trip to Tunisia from mid-February to early March (https://voyageforum.com/forum/impressions-tunisiennes-en-direct-d11460662/), a stay I enjoyed so much that six weeks later, I’m back in Tunisia for a full 15 days (I return on April 27).
This time, I landed in Monastir on a direct flight from Nice, again with Tunisair. We left about ten minutes late, and the flight lasted around 1 hour 30 minutes. A meal was served on board (cucumber salad with Edam-like cheese, carrots, and two small portions of dishes I couldn’t identify—semolina with peppers, olives, and parsley, two small rolls, a square of processed cheese, and a chocolate cake). It’s worth noting because it’s not common on flights this short.
In February, France and Tunisia were in the same time zone, but now Tunisia is one hour behind. This time difference and the flight duration work perfectly for a short 15-day trip since it takes me a few days to adjust to jet lag.
Luckily, I’d asked my hotel about the taxi fare from the airport because the drivers (there were several around me) didn’t hesitate to quote outrageous prices. The actual fare is 20 dinars, but one asked for 120 dinars. I refused, and another offered 60 dinars. I replied, "That’s too expensive—I’ll take the metro!" (Having tried the Tunis metro, I had no desire to repeat the experience in Monastir with a suitcase!). I started walking toward the metro, and one of the drivers caught up with me, saying, "20 dinars is fine!" I’ll skip the details, but the negotiation took a little while. When I arrived at the hotel, I told the receptionist someone had asked for 120 dinars. He put his hands to his head and said, "They’re awful!" He remembered our phone call two days earlier when I’d booked (he’s the one who told me I could take the metro).
The Mezri Hotel isn’t expensive. I got a sea-view room for 75 dinars (22 €). (I’d booked a balcony room for 90 dinars but wouldn’t have had time to enjoy it.) It’s well-located but noisy because there’s no double glazing. The receptionist is a very kind older gentleman. He called a friend whose wife is from Tozeur to find out if I should take a bus or a *louage* tomorrow and what time.
I arrived at the hotel around 7:00 PM and had time to stroll along the corniche to the ribat. Despite some run-down buildings, the seaside seemed livelier and cheerier than Sousse’s.
Monastir is the hometown of former president Bourguiba. I passed his mausoleum by taxi. There are Tunisian flags along the avenue by the sea because every year on April 6—the anniversary of Habib Bourguiba’s death—the president of the Republic visits the Bourguiba Mausoleum in Monastir to pay respects.
The taxi driver mentioned other Tunisian presidents. He complained about rising prices and insecurity, blaming President Kaïs Saïed (I’d already heard that security was better under Ben Ali).
At the end of my stay, I’ll take time to explore Monastir, but tomorrow morning, I’m off to Tozeur—a long bus ride awaits me.
TO BE CONTINUED....
On this forum, I shared my first trip to Tunisia from mid-February to early March (https://voyageforum.com/forum/impressions-tunisiennes-en-direct-d11460662/), a stay I enjoyed so much that six weeks later, I’m back in Tunisia for a full 15 days (I return on April 27).
This time, I landed in Monastir on a direct flight from Nice, again with Tunisair. We left about ten minutes late, and the flight lasted around 1 hour 30 minutes. A meal was served on board (cucumber salad with Edam-like cheese, carrots, and two small portions of dishes I couldn’t identify—semolina with peppers, olives, and parsley, two small rolls, a square of processed cheese, and a chocolate cake). It’s worth noting because it’s not common on flights this short.
In February, France and Tunisia were in the same time zone, but now Tunisia is one hour behind. This time difference and the flight duration work perfectly for a short 15-day trip since it takes me a few days to adjust to jet lag.
Luckily, I’d asked my hotel about the taxi fare from the airport because the drivers (there were several around me) didn’t hesitate to quote outrageous prices. The actual fare is 20 dinars, but one asked for 120 dinars. I refused, and another offered 60 dinars. I replied, "That’s too expensive—I’ll take the metro!" (Having tried the Tunis metro, I had no desire to repeat the experience in Monastir with a suitcase!). I started walking toward the metro, and one of the drivers caught up with me, saying, "20 dinars is fine!" I’ll skip the details, but the negotiation took a little while. When I arrived at the hotel, I told the receptionist someone had asked for 120 dinars. He put his hands to his head and said, "They’re awful!" He remembered our phone call two days earlier when I’d booked (he’s the one who told me I could take the metro).
The Mezri Hotel isn’t expensive. I got a sea-view room for 75 dinars (22 €). (I’d booked a balcony room for 90 dinars but wouldn’t have had time to enjoy it.) It’s well-located but noisy because there’s no double glazing. The receptionist is a very kind older gentleman. He called a friend whose wife is from Tozeur to find out if I should take a bus or a *louage* tomorrow and what time.
I arrived at the hotel around 7:00 PM and had time to stroll along the corniche to the ribat. Despite some run-down buildings, the seaside seemed livelier and cheerier than Sousse’s.
Monastir is the hometown of former president Bourguiba. I passed his mausoleum by taxi. There are Tunisian flags along the avenue by the sea because every year on April 6—the anniversary of Habib Bourguiba’s death—the president of the Republic visits the Bourguiba Mausoleum in Monastir to pay respects.
The taxi driver mentioned other Tunisian presidents. He complained about rising prices and insecurity, blaming President Kaïs Saïed (I’d already heard that security was better under Ben Ali).
At the end of my stay, I’ll take time to explore Monastir, but tomorrow morning, I’m off to Tozeur—a long bus ride awaits me.
TO BE CONTINUED....
Practical aspects spring 2026: border to Murmansk, to Pskov, SIM cards, internet.
I took a few days to get some fresh air outside the Schengen-NATO prison. Between March 18, 2026, and March 25, 2026, as shown by the passport stamps:
Borisoglebsk is the Russian border checkpoint after Kirkenes, on the road to Murmansk.
Kirkenes is a tiny town with a correspondingly small airport. Nothing has changed there: the minibuses to Murmansk wait on the right as you exit the airport. They’re synchronized with the two daily flights from Oslo—the SAS around 11:00 AM and Norwegian around 11:30 AM. They stop in Kirkenes at the corner of the Scandic for an hour, where other passengers can board, then head straight to the nearby border.
This is the least hassle Frontex/Schengen border. The Norwegian agent quickly scans your passport, and that’s it. No customs, since Norway is Schengen but not in the EU. On the Russian side, there’s a passport check and a quick customs inspection. All in all, crossing both the Norwegian and Russian checkpoints takes about 15 minutes.
A paper visa is required; e-visas aren’t accepted.
Two companies run the route: Avto Ekspress and Borodin: https://ae51.ru/routes/kirkenes-murmansk/ https://borodinbus.com/
The one-way fare is 5,500 ₽. You can either buy it online in rubles with a MIR card or make a formal reservation and pay in NOK cash to the driver. I took Borodin, and the price in NOK was much more expensive than in ₽.
=========================
On March 25, I left from Pskov via the Estonian border post at Luhaama. I spent three days in Murmansk, flew to St. Petersburg (SPB), stayed there for two days, then took an evening train to Pskov.
Since the end of February—and reportedly until the end of May—the Estonians have restricted the opening hours of the two border crossings near Pskov: Koidula (Pechory on the Russian side) and Luhaama (Izborsk on the Russian side). They’re closed at night between 7:00 PM and 7:00 AM. Right now, there’s a bus from Pskov at 7:00 AM to the border. It drops you off at the end of the road where truckers—many Kazakh and Serbian—are parked on the side. You finish the rest on foot to the barrier, where there’s a quick initial check for Ukrainian stamps in passports. Then you walk to the customs building, followed by passport control at the kiosk for motorists. After that, it’s a 500-meter walk to the Estonian checkpoint. At the moment, things seem calmer. Passport control is quick. The usual silly questions in English: "Where were you? Where are you going?" I just gave my most clueless smile: "Sorry, I don’t understand." Yeah, right—I don’t speak English, especially not at an Estonian border with a French passport. If they’re in a mood, though... A very quick bag inspection. Once you exit the Estonian post, walk to the bus stop sign by the road where another coach takes you to Riga.
The catch: in my case, last Wednesday, there were two passengers (Russians) with old Ukrainian stamps in their passports. The bus from the Estonian post to Riga was supposed to leave around 9:30 AM. We ended up leaving around noon after the two were grilled by the FSB. Since it was a weekday outside of holidays, the bus was half-empty. The fuller the bus and the more people with Ukrainian stamps, the worse the nightmare. Don’t book a same-day flight from Riga. I had a flight at 6:00 PM, so it worked out.
=============
The Kirkenes-Murmansk route is still clearly the easiest and fastest. But it’s not the most convenient since it’s way up north.
Next, I’d say the Gdansk-Kaliningrad route in the middle of the week. Avoid weekends and holiday departures/returns.
Avoid the Narva-Ivangorod route during Christmas, Easter, May 9, and *all* summer.
==============
About flights from Murmansk to St. Petersburg: prices are good. I bought my ticket the day before departure on Rossiya for 7,500 ₽, including 10 kg of luggage + a handbag.
It’s the tail end of the northern lights season, and there were still crowds of Chinese tourists.
By the way, Murmansk is twinned with Harbin:
Chinese tourists are the largest foreign group, followed by Indians, then a mix of others from the Far East, Turks, Arabs, etc. Brochures are bilingual—Russian and Chinese:
============================
But let’s talk practical stuff. --
My domestic SIM card was restricted for SMS and internet for 24 hours. After that, if you want to keep using SMS, don’t turn off your phone—restarting triggers another 24-hour purgatory.
My Russian SIM cards (Megafon, MTS, Beeline) were activated as soon as I logged into their respective apps with my credentials.
Internet --
Telegram is heavily slowed down by authorities. To use it, you need to connect through proxy servers, which you load into the latest version of the app. Traffic is then rerouted internally within Telegram to servers outside Russia (Germany, Poland, Sweden, etc.). You can find these proxies on various channels. One is ChatVPN—check their website too.
For general internet use, like browsing the web, VPNs that work right now use the VLESS protocol. You can find several on Telegram by searching "VPN." A few free days, then payment in rubles or crypto.
Rozkomnadzor’s team are experts at this, so things can change. It’s a constant cat-and-mouse game.
Pskov is a special case. The city is near Estonia and has a large military base. Depending on NATO drone swarms launched from the Baltics, Wi-Fi can be completely suspended except for the most essential mobile apps. The drone swarms use the 4G network, and the powerful electronic jamming and drone suppression systems cause periods without Wi-Fi—including in hotels. Wired connections aren’t affected.
Borisoglebsk is the Russian border checkpoint after Kirkenes, on the road to Murmansk.
Kirkenes is a tiny town with a correspondingly small airport. Nothing has changed there: the minibuses to Murmansk wait on the right as you exit the airport. They’re synchronized with the two daily flights from Oslo—the SAS around 11:00 AM and Norwegian around 11:30 AM. They stop in Kirkenes at the corner of the Scandic for an hour, where other passengers can board, then head straight to the nearby border.
This is the least hassle Frontex/Schengen border. The Norwegian agent quickly scans your passport, and that’s it. No customs, since Norway is Schengen but not in the EU. On the Russian side, there’s a passport check and a quick customs inspection. All in all, crossing both the Norwegian and Russian checkpoints takes about 15 minutes.
A paper visa is required; e-visas aren’t accepted.
Two companies run the route: Avto Ekspress and Borodin: https://ae51.ru/routes/kirkenes-murmansk/ https://borodinbus.com/
The one-way fare is 5,500 ₽. You can either buy it online in rubles with a MIR card or make a formal reservation and pay in NOK cash to the driver. I took Borodin, and the price in NOK was much more expensive than in ₽.
=========================
On March 25, I left from Pskov via the Estonian border post at Luhaama. I spent three days in Murmansk, flew to St. Petersburg (SPB), stayed there for two days, then took an evening train to Pskov.
Since the end of February—and reportedly until the end of May—the Estonians have restricted the opening hours of the two border crossings near Pskov: Koidula (Pechory on the Russian side) and Luhaama (Izborsk on the Russian side). They’re closed at night between 7:00 PM and 7:00 AM. Right now, there’s a bus from Pskov at 7:00 AM to the border. It drops you off at the end of the road where truckers—many Kazakh and Serbian—are parked on the side. You finish the rest on foot to the barrier, where there’s a quick initial check for Ukrainian stamps in passports. Then you walk to the customs building, followed by passport control at the kiosk for motorists. After that, it’s a 500-meter walk to the Estonian checkpoint. At the moment, things seem calmer. Passport control is quick. The usual silly questions in English: "Where were you? Where are you going?" I just gave my most clueless smile: "Sorry, I don’t understand." Yeah, right—I don’t speak English, especially not at an Estonian border with a French passport. If they’re in a mood, though... A very quick bag inspection. Once you exit the Estonian post, walk to the bus stop sign by the road where another coach takes you to Riga.
The catch: in my case, last Wednesday, there were two passengers (Russians) with old Ukrainian stamps in their passports. The bus from the Estonian post to Riga was supposed to leave around 9:30 AM. We ended up leaving around noon after the two were grilled by the FSB. Since it was a weekday outside of holidays, the bus was half-empty. The fuller the bus and the more people with Ukrainian stamps, the worse the nightmare. Don’t book a same-day flight from Riga. I had a flight at 6:00 PM, so it worked out.
=============
The Kirkenes-Murmansk route is still clearly the easiest and fastest. But it’s not the most convenient since it’s way up north.
Next, I’d say the Gdansk-Kaliningrad route in the middle of the week. Avoid weekends and holiday departures/returns.
Avoid the Narva-Ivangorod route during Christmas, Easter, May 9, and *all* summer.
==============
About flights from Murmansk to St. Petersburg: prices are good. I bought my ticket the day before departure on Rossiya for 7,500 ₽, including 10 kg of luggage + a handbag.
It’s the tail end of the northern lights season, and there were still crowds of Chinese tourists.
By the way, Murmansk is twinned with Harbin:
Chinese tourists are the largest foreign group, followed by Indians, then a mix of others from the Far East, Turks, Arabs, etc. Brochures are bilingual—Russian and Chinese:
============================
But let’s talk practical stuff. --
My domestic SIM card was restricted for SMS and internet for 24 hours. After that, if you want to keep using SMS, don’t turn off your phone—restarting triggers another 24-hour purgatory.
My Russian SIM cards (Megafon, MTS, Beeline) were activated as soon as I logged into their respective apps with my credentials.
Internet --
Telegram is heavily slowed down by authorities. To use it, you need to connect through proxy servers, which you load into the latest version of the app. Traffic is then rerouted internally within Telegram to servers outside Russia (Germany, Poland, Sweden, etc.). You can find these proxies on various channels. One is ChatVPN—check their website too.
For general internet use, like browsing the web, VPNs that work right now use the VLESS protocol. You can find several on Telegram by searching "VPN." A few free days, then payment in rubles or crypto.
Rozkomnadzor’s team are experts at this, so things can change. It’s a constant cat-and-mouse game.
Pskov is a special case. The city is near Estonia and has a large military base. Depending on NATO drone swarms launched from the Baltics, Wi-Fi can be completely suspended except for the most essential mobile apps. The drone swarms use the 4G network, and the powerful electronic jamming and drone suppression systems cause periods without Wi-Fi—including in hotels. Wired connections aren’t affected.
Airports in the Persian Gulf Emirates
Hi,
Right now, with the war raging in Iran and affecting all the neighboring countries of the Persian Gulf, many airports are completely closed to all traffic.
Several airlines like Qatar Airways, Emirates, and others have almost completely halted their operations.
Whether in the Middle East or Africa, many travelers are stranded—maybe for a long time... A heartfelt thought for them and the struggles this will cause.
Four months ago, I was in Kenya with a flight booked through Qatar Airways... I can’t even imagine how I’d react if I were stuck there now. ??
Wishing all these travelers courage, patience, and success in making it back home.
...
Doha Airport on October 21, 2025:
...
Right now, with the war raging in Iran and affecting all the neighboring countries of the Persian Gulf, many airports are completely closed to all traffic.
Several airlines like Qatar Airways, Emirates, and others have almost completely halted their operations.
Whether in the Middle East or Africa, many travelers are stranded—maybe for a long time... A heartfelt thought for them and the struggles this will cause.
Four months ago, I was in Kenya with a flight booked through Qatar Airways... I can’t even imagine how I’d react if I were stuck there now. ??
Wishing all these travelers courage, patience, and success in making it back home.
...
Doha Airport on October 21, 2025:
...
Societal Evolution
Hello everyone,
It’s something we often notice in this forum—and many others—this behavioral shift.
A long-time member, or even a new one, asks a question. They get one or more answers, some brief, some detailed, and then... nothing???
Not even a simple thank you!!!
From what I’ve gathered, if the answers don’t align with what they wanted to hear, it seems natural for the asker to just disappear!! 😕 Unless—(and I fear this is the case)—basic politeness is no longer part of our society????
Please forgive my little rant.
Wishing everyone all the best. Cheers,
Puma2A
...
It’s something we often notice in this forum—and many others—this behavioral shift.
A long-time member, or even a new one, asks a question. They get one or more answers, some brief, some detailed, and then... nothing???
Not even a simple thank you!!!
From what I’ve gathered, if the answers don’t align with what they wanted to hear, it seems natural for the asker to just disappear!! 😕 Unless—(and I fear this is the case)—basic politeness is no longer part of our society????
Please forgive my little rant.
Wishing everyone all the best. Cheers,
Puma2A
...
Martine from DD in Arizona and New Mexico
Good evening everyone! 🙂
We’re back from our September 2025 road trip, this time to explore Arizona and New Mexico, and it’s time for me to start my travel journal—especially since everything’s already booked for another trip in September 2026 (to California), and I need to get started on the planning.
I was a little worried this new visit to Uncle Sam’s country might not be as "wow" as the others, but we still discovered some incredible places.
For those who don’t know us, we’re a couple in our seventies who speak very little English, but that didn’t stop us from fully enjoying our stay.
For this 6th road trip in the U.S., we spent 21 nights there, drove 4,160 km by car, and walked nearly 160 km in a loop starting from Phoenix.
We’d been to Arizona before (but not this side) and never to New Mexico. This whole road trip was a huge discovery for us.
In the prices mentioned (some in euros, others in dollars), bank fees and exchange charges are included. The flights, car rental, and parking were all paid for in December 2024 when we booked.
We’d downloaded the MPC (Mobile Passport Control) app, but there wasn’t a dedicated line at Phoenix Airport. Still, we got through quickly with friendly, smiling agents.
I don’t drive at all (I hate it), so the stops were chosen based on activities but also, for some, to limit daily mileage for the sole driver. The kilometers listed in the itinerary are the daily distances.
We traveled from September 9th to 22nd, unfortunately once again without our dear friends Mimi and Maumau.
The itinerary
Day 1: Flight Marseille-Paris-Phoenix, then Gold Canyon (133 km) Day 2: Tucson (271 km) Lost Dutchman State Park Day 3: Tucson (155 km) Day 4: Tucson (34 km) Day 5: Bisbee (182 km) Day 6: Lordsburg (345 km) Day 7: Las Cruces (253 km) Day 8: Alamogordo (162 km) Day 9: Roswell (264 km) Day 10: Tucumcari (369 km) Day 11: Las Vegas (281 km) – the one in New Mexico Day 12: Taos (213 km) Day 13: Santa Fe (224 km) Day 14: Albuquerque (123 km) Day 15: Gallup (246 km) Day 16: Holbrook (224 km) Day 17: Flagstaff (179 km) Day 18: Sedona (118 km) Day 19: Sedona (48 km) Day 20: Sedona (41 km) Day 21: Phoenix (256 km) Day 22: Phoenix Airport (35 km)
📊 **Budget**: A little over 7,500 € for both of us, all included. The exchange rate was in our favor (1.17 dollars to 1 €). 📊 **Flights**: Marseille-Paris Charles de Gaulle-Phoenix: 1,787 € for two, with one checked bag each (Air France) 📊 **ESTA**: $42 📊 **America the Beautiful Pass**: $80 📊 **Parking**: 134 € (super eco at Marseille) 📊 **Car rental (Hertz)**: 865 €. Since there were no SUVs left in the reserved category (Nissan Rogue), we got an upgrade (4x4 Ford Explorer). We booked through Air France (15% discount). We’d originally reserved it in December for 1,140 €, but since prices dropped in March, we canceled and rebooked for 865 €. Hertz offers a free Hertz Gold Plus Rewards program, which gives you priority counter service when picking up the car. 📊 **Accommodation**: 2,400 € We stayed in hotels and motels of varying standards (from 60 to 203 € per night, depending on the city), all booked through Booking.com or Hotels.com. Out of 21 nights, only two didn’t include breakfast in the price. Booking.com sometimes offers slightly cheaper rates if you book by phone using the mobile app, and our Genius 3 status on the site also got us some preferential rates. 📊 **Supplementary insurance**: AVA 200 € for medical care if needed 📊 **Cash**: $2,078. We left with 1,000 € exchanged before departure and made two withdrawals of $500. This cash covered: - Evening restaurants and tips - Midday picnics - Gas: $298 for 4,160 km - Museum and private park entries (per person): - Lost Dutchman: $10 - Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum: $28 - Bird Cage Theater: $16 - Tombstone Shootout: $8 - New Mexico Farm & Ranch Museum: $12 - Roswell International UFO Museum: $5 - Billy the Kid Museum: $7 - Rancho de Taos: $22 - West Fork Oak Creek Trail entry: $15 We got a few discounts thanks to our senior age (+65). - Souvenirs and little treats
Like on our previous road trips, we didn’t rent a GPS. We got around using offline GPS apps Here WeGo and Organic Maps, with maps of the states we visited downloaded before we left (on our phones).
❤️❤️❤️ **Highlights** (there are so many!) 📍 Goldfield Ghost Town (even if it’s a reconstruction) 📍 The standing army of Saguaro cacti at Saguaro National Park West 📍 Diving into the cowboy universe of Tombstone 📍 The welcome from Rick and Henry at our guesthouse in Bisbee (Garden at Mile High Ranch) 📍 The tangled rocks of Chiricahua National Monument 📍 The flavored pistachios from Dwayne’s Fresh Jerky and Mac Ginnis Pistachioland 📍 Restaurants: La Posta (Las Cruces), Diner 66 (Albuquerque), and the Haunted Hamburger (Jerome) 📍 The old plazas of New Mexico 📍 The solitude and beauty of the white dunes at White Sands National Park 📍 Stepping back in time at the Billy the Kid Museum (Fort Stanton) 📍 Sections of historic Route 66 and the old motels of Tucumcari, especially at night when all the neon lights are on 📍 Taos Pueblo and diving into Native American culture 📍 After the Rio Grande Bridge, the descent via NM 567 to the very bottom of the Rio Grande Gorge, then the road along the riverbanks to Taos 📍 The tranquility of the Chimayo Sanctuary 📍 Discovering the ingenious native dwellings at Bandelier National Monument and Walnut Canyon National Park 📍 The small towns along the Turquoise Trail 📍 The red rocks of Red Rock Park and the Painted Desert 📍 The extraordinary colors of the petrified trees at Petrified Forest National Park 📍 Sedona, its red rocks, and the reward of the viewpoints at the end of hikes (Devil’s Bridge, The Subway, and West Fork Oak Creek) 📍 The immersion in Mexico when visiting Tlaquepaque 📍 The almost-ghost town of Jerome and its terraced streets 📍 The incredible kindness of Americans, always ready to help and up for a chat ❤️
☹️☹️☹️ **Flops** (there are very few) 📍 Several museums and churches being closed, so we couldn’t visit them 📍 Some museums and visitor centers opening late (10 AM) and closing early (4 PM) 📍 A 64 € phone roaming charge because we got near the Mexican border and picked up their cell tower 📍 The outrageous price ($5.99) for a gallon of gas at the Shell near Phoenix Airport
I hope this helps! Anyway, thanks for reading my long post. Don’t hesitate to reach out, even via PM, if you see I haven’t replied and you’d like more details. Have a great evening, everyone! 🙂
We’re back from our September 2025 road trip, this time to explore Arizona and New Mexico, and it’s time for me to start my travel journal—especially since everything’s already booked for another trip in September 2026 (to California), and I need to get started on the planning.
I was a little worried this new visit to Uncle Sam’s country might not be as "wow" as the others, but we still discovered some incredible places.
For those who don’t know us, we’re a couple in our seventies who speak very little English, but that didn’t stop us from fully enjoying our stay.
For this 6th road trip in the U.S., we spent 21 nights there, drove 4,160 km by car, and walked nearly 160 km in a loop starting from Phoenix.
We’d been to Arizona before (but not this side) and never to New Mexico. This whole road trip was a huge discovery for us.
In the prices mentioned (some in euros, others in dollars), bank fees and exchange charges are included. The flights, car rental, and parking were all paid for in December 2024 when we booked.
We’d downloaded the MPC (Mobile Passport Control) app, but there wasn’t a dedicated line at Phoenix Airport. Still, we got through quickly with friendly, smiling agents.
I don’t drive at all (I hate it), so the stops were chosen based on activities but also, for some, to limit daily mileage for the sole driver. The kilometers listed in the itinerary are the daily distances.
We traveled from September 9th to 22nd, unfortunately once again without our dear friends Mimi and Maumau.
The itinerary
Day 1: Flight Marseille-Paris-Phoenix, then Gold Canyon (133 km) Day 2: Tucson (271 km) Lost Dutchman State Park Day 3: Tucson (155 km) Day 4: Tucson (34 km) Day 5: Bisbee (182 km) Day 6: Lordsburg (345 km) Day 7: Las Cruces (253 km) Day 8: Alamogordo (162 km) Day 9: Roswell (264 km) Day 10: Tucumcari (369 km) Day 11: Las Vegas (281 km) – the one in New Mexico Day 12: Taos (213 km) Day 13: Santa Fe (224 km) Day 14: Albuquerque (123 km) Day 15: Gallup (246 km) Day 16: Holbrook (224 km) Day 17: Flagstaff (179 km) Day 18: Sedona (118 km) Day 19: Sedona (48 km) Day 20: Sedona (41 km) Day 21: Phoenix (256 km) Day 22: Phoenix Airport (35 km)
📊 **Budget**: A little over 7,500 € for both of us, all included. The exchange rate was in our favor (1.17 dollars to 1 €). 📊 **Flights**: Marseille-Paris Charles de Gaulle-Phoenix: 1,787 € for two, with one checked bag each (Air France) 📊 **ESTA**: $42 📊 **America the Beautiful Pass**: $80 📊 **Parking**: 134 € (super eco at Marseille) 📊 **Car rental (Hertz)**: 865 €. Since there were no SUVs left in the reserved category (Nissan Rogue), we got an upgrade (4x4 Ford Explorer). We booked through Air France (15% discount). We’d originally reserved it in December for 1,140 €, but since prices dropped in March, we canceled and rebooked for 865 €. Hertz offers a free Hertz Gold Plus Rewards program, which gives you priority counter service when picking up the car. 📊 **Accommodation**: 2,400 € We stayed in hotels and motels of varying standards (from 60 to 203 € per night, depending on the city), all booked through Booking.com or Hotels.com. Out of 21 nights, only two didn’t include breakfast in the price. Booking.com sometimes offers slightly cheaper rates if you book by phone using the mobile app, and our Genius 3 status on the site also got us some preferential rates. 📊 **Supplementary insurance**: AVA 200 € for medical care if needed 📊 **Cash**: $2,078. We left with 1,000 € exchanged before departure and made two withdrawals of $500. This cash covered: - Evening restaurants and tips - Midday picnics - Gas: $298 for 4,160 km - Museum and private park entries (per person): - Lost Dutchman: $10 - Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum: $28 - Bird Cage Theater: $16 - Tombstone Shootout: $8 - New Mexico Farm & Ranch Museum: $12 - Roswell International UFO Museum: $5 - Billy the Kid Museum: $7 - Rancho de Taos: $22 - West Fork Oak Creek Trail entry: $15 We got a few discounts thanks to our senior age (+65). - Souvenirs and little treats
Like on our previous road trips, we didn’t rent a GPS. We got around using offline GPS apps Here WeGo and Organic Maps, with maps of the states we visited downloaded before we left (on our phones).
❤️❤️❤️ **Highlights** (there are so many!) 📍 Goldfield Ghost Town (even if it’s a reconstruction) 📍 The standing army of Saguaro cacti at Saguaro National Park West 📍 Diving into the cowboy universe of Tombstone 📍 The welcome from Rick and Henry at our guesthouse in Bisbee (Garden at Mile High Ranch) 📍 The tangled rocks of Chiricahua National Monument 📍 The flavored pistachios from Dwayne’s Fresh Jerky and Mac Ginnis Pistachioland 📍 Restaurants: La Posta (Las Cruces), Diner 66 (Albuquerque), and the Haunted Hamburger (Jerome) 📍 The old plazas of New Mexico 📍 The solitude and beauty of the white dunes at White Sands National Park 📍 Stepping back in time at the Billy the Kid Museum (Fort Stanton) 📍 Sections of historic Route 66 and the old motels of Tucumcari, especially at night when all the neon lights are on 📍 Taos Pueblo and diving into Native American culture 📍 After the Rio Grande Bridge, the descent via NM 567 to the very bottom of the Rio Grande Gorge, then the road along the riverbanks to Taos 📍 The tranquility of the Chimayo Sanctuary 📍 Discovering the ingenious native dwellings at Bandelier National Monument and Walnut Canyon National Park 📍 The small towns along the Turquoise Trail 📍 The red rocks of Red Rock Park and the Painted Desert 📍 The extraordinary colors of the petrified trees at Petrified Forest National Park 📍 Sedona, its red rocks, and the reward of the viewpoints at the end of hikes (Devil’s Bridge, The Subway, and West Fork Oak Creek) 📍 The immersion in Mexico when visiting Tlaquepaque 📍 The almost-ghost town of Jerome and its terraced streets 📍 The incredible kindness of Americans, always ready to help and up for a chat ❤️
☹️☹️☹️ **Flops** (there are very few) 📍 Several museums and churches being closed, so we couldn’t visit them 📍 Some museums and visitor centers opening late (10 AM) and closing early (4 PM) 📍 A 64 € phone roaming charge because we got near the Mexican border and picked up their cell tower 📍 The outrageous price ($5.99) for a gallon of gas at the Shell near Phoenix Airport
I hope this helps! Anyway, thanks for reading my long post. Don’t hesitate to reach out, even via PM, if you see I haven’t replied and you’d like more details. Have a great evening, everyone! 🙂
How do you feel about coming back to France?
Hi there, I’ve been traveling for 18 years now, at least 6 months a year, and as the years go by, I actually enjoy coming back to France more and more—a feeling I struggled with at first. I mean, we always think the grass is greener elsewhere.
But in the end, I find meaning in that saying about how there’s no place like home. I still love traveling just as much, but now my trips are shorter, and I enjoy spending more time in our beautiful country, even though I don’t hesitate to criticize it.
How about you? How do you handle coming back from your travels?
Yet Another Travel Journal in this (Too) Familiar Rajasthan, But with Family and Kids
Prologue
This journal recounts a trip to Rajasthan that’s already over a year old and that I’ve only now found the chance to write about. The summer of 2024 marked my return to India—my tenth trip—after six long years away since my last solo wanderings in Tamil Nadu in 2018 (the journal of which is published on this site). That absence was partly (but not only) due to the long COVID and post-COVID period, which saw a complete halt and then a major slowdown in global tourism. To top it off, Voyage Forum announced its closure in an end-of-the-world atmosphere. A sad time for our favorite social activity…
A few weeks after returning from Rajasthan, I tried to motivate myself to start writing a journal to publish on a forum claiming to be VF’s successor, which I’d eventually signed up for out of desperation. But I kept hesitating and putting the project off because, for one, I no longer have the time I used to. For another, the vibe wasn’t really taking off on that forum—it was overrun with ads and not very active, contrary to what its host’s name suggested. Despite its good intentions and commendable role as a stopgap, it also turned out to be very impractical to use, especially when you don’t have much time like me. I’ll admit I’d occasionally check back on VF to see if anything was happening. But all the discussions remained frozen in time, stuck in that fateful year, 2020. Then, rumors swirled online about shady reasons behind its closure, leaving little room for hope.
And then, one fine morning, I got a message at work from Marien informing me that VF had reopened. What a huge surprise! Even though the forum’s “end” had played out in a somewhat apocalyptic atmosphere, the memories of passionate and heated discussions, the frank debates, and the useful exchanges that made this site a traveler’s goldmine and a unique hub of conviviality all came rushing back to me like a breath of fresh air. I finally saw a sign and tried to motivate myself to find the time to publish the journal of this tenth trip to India and fifth to Rajasthan. But in the end, I got bogged down in professional and family obligations and never managed to find the time to get started. That’s now fixed, though, because I had two reasons for wanting to do it: I find that looking back on a trip to tell others about it is a highly beneficial introspective exercise. Also, I thought this journal could be useful to other travelers on a few points.
Because, “do we really need yet another journal about Rajasthan?” you might rightly ask! Especially in a time when so many journals about the “Land of Kings” have been published since VF’s return, not to mention the countless stories you can already find online about this region, one of India’s most touristy. And I’d add, why go back to Rajasthan for a fifth time, where I’ve already dragged my feet more than enough—through its forts, deserts, temples, cities, villages, bumpy roads, train stations, tasty street food stalls, cheap guesthouses, and more? Where some might see just another overhyped tourist destination full of the same old *Arabian Nights* clichés, worn to a thread, that I mentioned earlier, when there’s so much else to see in India? Well, first because it’s a magnificent country I never tire of, where I started an academic study and made so many connections. It’s also packed with places where you won’t find a single tourist (right, Marie-Jo?), even in the heart of well-trodden paths and classic itineraries. And most importantly, as I said earlier, things have changed in recent years. First, after six years without traveling far, the urge to go back to India was getting stronger. But this time, no more solo trips (often) or duo adventures (sometimes)—now it’s a team of four that has to come along! And even if you can argue with that, what better place than Rajasthan to introduce India to people who’ve never seen it? To kids you want to amaze? Plus, traveling with your new little family to your favorite country isn’t the same as going solo in often spartan conditions that only affect you. It’s a different challenge, but ultimately probably much harder. So, is it really reasonable to take two kids to India, including a two-year-old baby? That’s one of the main goals of this journal (but not the only one)—to try to answer that question.
As you can tell, it’s not so much the destination but the slightly unusual setup of this trip that, in my opinion, will make this journal interesting. Despite my experience and expertise (yes, I dare say it) in India, there were plenty of questions before we finalized the plan and said, “Alright, let’s go!” The questions were flying for us parents. Is it wise to travel to India with a two-year-old? What would we do (it happened) if the kids got very sick? Would they be able to handle a road trip on Rajasthan’s bumpy, dusty roads using public transport? Could they handle the shock of such a different world—the dirt, poverty, pollution, noise (…and the smell, as they say), the spicy food, monkeys, mosquitoes, snakes, tigers, leopards, and so on? In short, all the clichés that I usually joke about suddenly became potential realities. Another concern: as a mixed Franco-African family (not me, but my partner and her oldest), wouldn’t we risk not always being well received, given what you sometimes hear about that in India? How would Indians react to seeing a mixed-race family, the ultimate taboo in a country of purity and social segregation, which would undoubtedly raise many questions for them? Of course, not everything went as expected… Because, as you know, with India—and what makes it charming for some—there are always complications: sometimes where you don’t expect them… and sometimes where you do. I’ll go into detail about that in the journal to come (not right away) and in the final review (even later). These experiences could be useful to travelers who find themselves in similar situations and have the same questions we did before embarking on such a journey. And maybe it’ll spark the curiosity of those who aren’t concerned and will read yet another Rajasthan journal, but with its own unique twists.
Despite my unchanged constraints, which mean I have little time to write this, I don’t want to rush the story, so I’ll take my time. There will probably be lulls. I hope that won’t stop people from coming to react, debate, share their impressions, or ask for information.
This journal recounts a trip to Rajasthan that’s already over a year old and that I’ve only now found the chance to write about. The summer of 2024 marked my return to India—my tenth trip—after six long years away since my last solo wanderings in Tamil Nadu in 2018 (the journal of which is published on this site). That absence was partly (but not only) due to the long COVID and post-COVID period, which saw a complete halt and then a major slowdown in global tourism. To top it off, Voyage Forum announced its closure in an end-of-the-world atmosphere. A sad time for our favorite social activity…
A few weeks after returning from Rajasthan, I tried to motivate myself to start writing a journal to publish on a forum claiming to be VF’s successor, which I’d eventually signed up for out of desperation. But I kept hesitating and putting the project off because, for one, I no longer have the time I used to. For another, the vibe wasn’t really taking off on that forum—it was overrun with ads and not very active, contrary to what its host’s name suggested. Despite its good intentions and commendable role as a stopgap, it also turned out to be very impractical to use, especially when you don’t have much time like me. I’ll admit I’d occasionally check back on VF to see if anything was happening. But all the discussions remained frozen in time, stuck in that fateful year, 2020. Then, rumors swirled online about shady reasons behind its closure, leaving little room for hope.
And then, one fine morning, I got a message at work from Marien informing me that VF had reopened. What a huge surprise! Even though the forum’s “end” had played out in a somewhat apocalyptic atmosphere, the memories of passionate and heated discussions, the frank debates, and the useful exchanges that made this site a traveler’s goldmine and a unique hub of conviviality all came rushing back to me like a breath of fresh air. I finally saw a sign and tried to motivate myself to find the time to publish the journal of this tenth trip to India and fifth to Rajasthan. But in the end, I got bogged down in professional and family obligations and never managed to find the time to get started. That’s now fixed, though, because I had two reasons for wanting to do it: I find that looking back on a trip to tell others about it is a highly beneficial introspective exercise. Also, I thought this journal could be useful to other travelers on a few points.
Because, “do we really need yet another journal about Rajasthan?” you might rightly ask! Especially in a time when so many journals about the “Land of Kings” have been published since VF’s return, not to mention the countless stories you can already find online about this region, one of India’s most touristy. And I’d add, why go back to Rajasthan for a fifth time, where I’ve already dragged my feet more than enough—through its forts, deserts, temples, cities, villages, bumpy roads, train stations, tasty street food stalls, cheap guesthouses, and more? Where some might see just another overhyped tourist destination full of the same old *Arabian Nights* clichés, worn to a thread, that I mentioned earlier, when there’s so much else to see in India? Well, first because it’s a magnificent country I never tire of, where I started an academic study and made so many connections. It’s also packed with places where you won’t find a single tourist (right, Marie-Jo?), even in the heart of well-trodden paths and classic itineraries. And most importantly, as I said earlier, things have changed in recent years. First, after six years without traveling far, the urge to go back to India was getting stronger. But this time, no more solo trips (often) or duo adventures (sometimes)—now it’s a team of four that has to come along! And even if you can argue with that, what better place than Rajasthan to introduce India to people who’ve never seen it? To kids you want to amaze? Plus, traveling with your new little family to your favorite country isn’t the same as going solo in often spartan conditions that only affect you. It’s a different challenge, but ultimately probably much harder. So, is it really reasonable to take two kids to India, including a two-year-old baby? That’s one of the main goals of this journal (but not the only one)—to try to answer that question.
As you can tell, it’s not so much the destination but the slightly unusual setup of this trip that, in my opinion, will make this journal interesting. Despite my experience and expertise (yes, I dare say it) in India, there were plenty of questions before we finalized the plan and said, “Alright, let’s go!” The questions were flying for us parents. Is it wise to travel to India with a two-year-old? What would we do (it happened) if the kids got very sick? Would they be able to handle a road trip on Rajasthan’s bumpy, dusty roads using public transport? Could they handle the shock of such a different world—the dirt, poverty, pollution, noise (…and the smell, as they say), the spicy food, monkeys, mosquitoes, snakes, tigers, leopards, and so on? In short, all the clichés that I usually joke about suddenly became potential realities. Another concern: as a mixed Franco-African family (not me, but my partner and her oldest), wouldn’t we risk not always being well received, given what you sometimes hear about that in India? How would Indians react to seeing a mixed-race family, the ultimate taboo in a country of purity and social segregation, which would undoubtedly raise many questions for them? Of course, not everything went as expected… Because, as you know, with India—and what makes it charming for some—there are always complications: sometimes where you don’t expect them… and sometimes where you do. I’ll go into detail about that in the journal to come (not right away) and in the final review (even later). These experiences could be useful to travelers who find themselves in similar situations and have the same questions we did before embarking on such a journey. And maybe it’ll spark the curiosity of those who aren’t concerned and will read yet another Rajasthan journal, but with its own unique twists.
Despite my unchanged constraints, which mean I have little time to write this, I don’t want to rush the story, so I’ll take my time. There will probably be lulls. I hope that won’t stop people from coming to react, debate, share their impressions, or ask for information.
USA Road Trip 2023 - Part 1
In January 2023, we started our second road trip across the United States. We stayed from January to mid-March, which gave us plenty of time to visit several cities, attractions, and parks in multiple states.
This travel journal will be split into two parts due to the considerable number of places we visited.
This first journal covers the following states: Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and California, and takes you through the outbound leg of our road trip.
The second journal will showcase the attractions we visited on the return trip, which mainly follows the famous Highway 1 along the Pacific coast.
So, I invite you to keep reading this first journal, which serves as a long recap to help you discover the various attractions we explored throughout this road trip.
Videos are included throughout the recap. Please click on the image to start the video.
Here are the links to jump to a specific post:
OHIO:
WinterLand - Christmas Lights at Cleveland Public Square Lake View Cemetery - Cleveland - Part 1 Lake View Cemetery - Cleveland - Part 2 Stroll through Columbus Upper Falls to Lower Falls via Buckeye Trail - Hocking Hills State Park – Logan Cedar Falls & Whispering Falls Hiking Trail - Hocking Hills State Park – Logan Ash Cave Hiking Trail - Hocking Hills State Park – Logan Exploring Cincinnati
INDIANA:
Visiting Indianapolis
MISSOURI:
Exploring St. Louis
OKLAHOMA:
Catoosa Blue Whale Discovering Tulsa Exploring Oklahoma City
TEXAS:
Exploring Shamrock Discovering McLean Exploring Amarillo
NEW MEXICO:
Ancestral Sites Trail - Pecos National Historical Park Discovering Santa Fe The Santuario de Chimayó Stroll through Los Cerrillos Walk through the village of Madrid San Francisco de Asis Catholic Church & The Bottle House - Golden Albuquerque Murals 66 Diner - Albuquerque Stroll through Old Town (Albuquerque) Rinconada Canyon Trail - Petroglyph National Monument Mesa Point Trail - Boca Negra Canyon - Petroglyph National Monument Macaw Trail - Boca Negra Canyon - Petroglyph National Monument Cliff Base Trail - Boca Negra Canyon - Petroglyph National Monument Piedras Marcadas Canyon - Petroglyph National Monument Sandstone Bluffs & Ventana Natural Arch - El Malpais National Monument
ARIZONA:
Stewart's Petrified Wood Shop – Holbrook Stroll through Holbrook Discovering Joseph City Exploring Winslow Grand Falls (The "Chocolate Falls") – Leupp Island Trail - Walnut Canyon National Monument Rim Trail - Walnut Canyon National Monument Wukoki Pueblo Trail – Wupatki National Monument Wupatki Pueblo Trail – Wupatki National Monument Doney Mountain Trail – Wupatki National Monument Citadel & Nalakihu Pueblos Trail – Wupatki National Monument Lomaki & Box Canyon Pueblos Trail – Wupatki National Monument Discovering Flagstaff On the way to Sedona Slide Rock State Park – Sedona Midgley Bridge Trail – Wilson Canyon – Sedona Tlaquepaque Arts & Shopping Village Walking Tour - Sedona Chapel of the Holy Cross - Sedona Hiking at Cathedral Rock - Sedona Hiking the Bell Rock Trail - Sedona Hiking the Airport Loop Trail - Sedona Amitabha Stupa and Peace Park - Sedona Hiking the Boynton Canyon Vortex Trail - Sedona Hiking the Devil's Bridge Trail - Sedona Hiking the Birthing Cave Trail - Sedona Bell Rock Inn - Sedona On the roads of Sedona - Part 1 On the roads of Sedona - Part 2 Keyhole Sink Hiking Trail - Kaibab National Forest Discovering Williams Exploring Ash Fork Discovering Kingman Ramada by Wyndham Kingman Davis Camp Park - Bullhead City Discovering Yucca Lake Havasu Boardwalk Tour A duck catches a lobster – Lake Havasu Boardwalk
CALIFORNIA:
Exploring Needles Discovering Goffs Discovering Amboy Visiting the famous Bagdad Cafe - Newberry Springs Exploring Barstow Vehicles from Hell (Mad Max Cars) - Barstow Peggy Sue's 50's Diner - Yermo Liberty Sculpture Park - Yermo Lake Dolores Water Park - Newberry Springs ZZYZX Road - Mojave National Preserve Alien Fresh Jerky - Baker Kelso Dunes Trail - Mojave National Preserve Hole-in-the-Wall Rings Trail - Mojave National Preserve Visiting Mitchell Caverns - Mojave National Preserve Dante's View - Death Valley National Park Zabriskie Point - Death Valley National Park Golden Canyon - Death Valley National Park Artists Drive & Artists Palette - Death Valley National Park Devil's Golf Course - Death Valley National Park Natural Bridge Trail - Death Valley National Park Badwater Basin - Death Valley National Park Harmony Borax Works - Death Valley National Park Devil's Cornfield - Death Valley National Park Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes - Death Valley National Park Mosaic Canyon Trail - Death Valley National Park On the road - Death Valley National Park
NEVADA:
Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health - Las Vegas Exploring Downtown Las Vegas SlotZilla Zipline - Fremont Street Experience – Downtown Las Vegas Viva Vision Light Show 1 - Fremont Street Experience - Downtown Las Vegas Viva Vision Light Show 2 - Fremont Street Experience - Downtown Las Vegas Viva Vision Light Show 3 - Fremont Street Experience - Downtown Las Vegas Viva Vision Light Show 4 - Fremont Street Experience - Downtown Las Vegas Free Live Music – Fremont Street Experience - Downtown Las Vegas Chucky – Fremont Street Experience - Downtown Las Vegas Las Vegas Strip - Part 1 Las Vegas Strip - Part 2 Las Vegas Strip - Part 3 Las Vegas Strip - Part 4 Las Vegas Strip - Part 5 Tom Devlin's Monster Museum - Boulder City Hoover Dam Lake Mead - Lakeview Overlook - Boulder City Nelson Ghost Town - Searchlight
CALIFORNIA:
Scenic Route through Joshua Tree National Park via the North Entrance Hidden Valley Trail - Joshua Tree National Park Barker Dam Trail - Joshua Tree National Park Cap Rock Trail - Joshua Tree National Park Keys View Trail - Joshua Tree National Park Hall of Horrors Trail - Joshua Tree National Park Skull Rock Trail - Joshua Tree National Park Arch Rock Trail - Joshua Tree National Park Cholla Cactus Garden Trail - Joshua Tree National Park Lone Pine - Owens Valley Miss Alabama & Shark Fin - Alabama Hills - Owens Valley Lone Ranger Canyon - Alabama Hills - Owens Valley Mobius Arch Loop Trail (Heart Arch & Lathe Arch) - Alabama Hills - Owens Valley Eye of the Alabama Hills Arch - Alabama Hills - Owens Valley Boot & Cyclops Arches - Alabama Hills - Owens Valley One Mile Arch, Bowling Ball and Pins & Gunga Din Area - Alabama Hills - Owens Valley Whitney Portal Arch Trailhead - Alabama Hills - Owens Valley Fish Rocks & Trona Pinnacles - Mojave Desert Red Cliffs Trail - Red Rock Canyon State Park Hagen Canyon Nature Trail - Red Rock Canyon State Park Tour of Historic Downtown Tehachapi View of the Tehachapi Loop – Monolith César E. Chávez National Monument – Keene Discovering Bakersfield Kern County Museum – Bakersfield Bravo Farms, Tree House & Petting Zoo - Traver Walking Tour of Kingsburg Exploring Fresno Simonian Farms & Soul Consoling Japanese Internment Tower - Fresno Duncan Ceramic Products (iLoveToCreate) - Fresno Walking Tour of Modesto Wat Dhammararam Buddhist Temple - Stockton Walking Tour of Stockton Discovering Stockton University of the Pacific - Stockton Visiting Lodi Sutter's Fort State Historic Park - Sacramento California State Capitol - Sacramento Walking Tour - Sacramento Walking Tour - Winters Walking Tour - Napa The Chandelier Tree In Drive-Thru Tree Park - Leggett One Log House - Garberville Grandfather Tree - Piercy The Living Chimney Tree - Avenue of the Giants Stephens Grove Loop Trail - Avenue of the Giants Gould Grove Nature Loop Trail - Avenue of the Giants Fleishmann Grove Trail - Avenue of the Giants Mahan Plaque Trail - Avenue of the Giants Founders Grove Nature Loop Trail - Avenue of the Giants Eternal Tree House & Immortal Tree - Avenue of the Giants Drury-Chaney Loop Trail - Avenue of the Giants Walking Tour - Redcrest
COMING UP NEXT:
USA Road Trip 2023 - Part 2
This travel journal will be split into two parts due to the considerable number of places we visited.
This first journal covers the following states: Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and California, and takes you through the outbound leg of our road trip.
The second journal will showcase the attractions we visited on the return trip, which mainly follows the famous Highway 1 along the Pacific coast.
So, I invite you to keep reading this first journal, which serves as a long recap to help you discover the various attractions we explored throughout this road trip.
Videos are included throughout the recap. Please click on the image to start the video.
Here are the links to jump to a specific post:
OHIO:
WinterLand - Christmas Lights at Cleveland Public Square Lake View Cemetery - Cleveland - Part 1 Lake View Cemetery - Cleveland - Part 2 Stroll through Columbus Upper Falls to Lower Falls via Buckeye Trail - Hocking Hills State Park – Logan Cedar Falls & Whispering Falls Hiking Trail - Hocking Hills State Park – Logan Ash Cave Hiking Trail - Hocking Hills State Park – Logan Exploring Cincinnati
INDIANA:
Visiting Indianapolis
MISSOURI:
Exploring St. Louis
OKLAHOMA:
Catoosa Blue Whale Discovering Tulsa Exploring Oklahoma City
TEXAS:
Exploring Shamrock Discovering McLean Exploring Amarillo
NEW MEXICO:
Ancestral Sites Trail - Pecos National Historical Park Discovering Santa Fe The Santuario de Chimayó Stroll through Los Cerrillos Walk through the village of Madrid San Francisco de Asis Catholic Church & The Bottle House - Golden Albuquerque Murals 66 Diner - Albuquerque Stroll through Old Town (Albuquerque) Rinconada Canyon Trail - Petroglyph National Monument Mesa Point Trail - Boca Negra Canyon - Petroglyph National Monument Macaw Trail - Boca Negra Canyon - Petroglyph National Monument Cliff Base Trail - Boca Negra Canyon - Petroglyph National Monument Piedras Marcadas Canyon - Petroglyph National Monument Sandstone Bluffs & Ventana Natural Arch - El Malpais National Monument
ARIZONA:
Stewart's Petrified Wood Shop – Holbrook Stroll through Holbrook Discovering Joseph City Exploring Winslow Grand Falls (The "Chocolate Falls") – Leupp Island Trail - Walnut Canyon National Monument Rim Trail - Walnut Canyon National Monument Wukoki Pueblo Trail – Wupatki National Monument Wupatki Pueblo Trail – Wupatki National Monument Doney Mountain Trail – Wupatki National Monument Citadel & Nalakihu Pueblos Trail – Wupatki National Monument Lomaki & Box Canyon Pueblos Trail – Wupatki National Monument Discovering Flagstaff On the way to Sedona Slide Rock State Park – Sedona Midgley Bridge Trail – Wilson Canyon – Sedona Tlaquepaque Arts & Shopping Village Walking Tour - Sedona Chapel of the Holy Cross - Sedona Hiking at Cathedral Rock - Sedona Hiking the Bell Rock Trail - Sedona Hiking the Airport Loop Trail - Sedona Amitabha Stupa and Peace Park - Sedona Hiking the Boynton Canyon Vortex Trail - Sedona Hiking the Devil's Bridge Trail - Sedona Hiking the Birthing Cave Trail - Sedona Bell Rock Inn - Sedona On the roads of Sedona - Part 1 On the roads of Sedona - Part 2 Keyhole Sink Hiking Trail - Kaibab National Forest Discovering Williams Exploring Ash Fork Discovering Kingman Ramada by Wyndham Kingman Davis Camp Park - Bullhead City Discovering Yucca Lake Havasu Boardwalk Tour A duck catches a lobster – Lake Havasu Boardwalk
CALIFORNIA:
Exploring Needles Discovering Goffs Discovering Amboy Visiting the famous Bagdad Cafe - Newberry Springs Exploring Barstow Vehicles from Hell (Mad Max Cars) - Barstow Peggy Sue's 50's Diner - Yermo Liberty Sculpture Park - Yermo Lake Dolores Water Park - Newberry Springs ZZYZX Road - Mojave National Preserve Alien Fresh Jerky - Baker Kelso Dunes Trail - Mojave National Preserve Hole-in-the-Wall Rings Trail - Mojave National Preserve Visiting Mitchell Caverns - Mojave National Preserve Dante's View - Death Valley National Park Zabriskie Point - Death Valley National Park Golden Canyon - Death Valley National Park Artists Drive & Artists Palette - Death Valley National Park Devil's Golf Course - Death Valley National Park Natural Bridge Trail - Death Valley National Park Badwater Basin - Death Valley National Park Harmony Borax Works - Death Valley National Park Devil's Cornfield - Death Valley National Park Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes - Death Valley National Park Mosaic Canyon Trail - Death Valley National Park On the road - Death Valley National Park
NEVADA:
Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health - Las Vegas Exploring Downtown Las Vegas SlotZilla Zipline - Fremont Street Experience – Downtown Las Vegas Viva Vision Light Show 1 - Fremont Street Experience - Downtown Las Vegas Viva Vision Light Show 2 - Fremont Street Experience - Downtown Las Vegas Viva Vision Light Show 3 - Fremont Street Experience - Downtown Las Vegas Viva Vision Light Show 4 - Fremont Street Experience - Downtown Las Vegas Free Live Music – Fremont Street Experience - Downtown Las Vegas Chucky – Fremont Street Experience - Downtown Las Vegas Las Vegas Strip - Part 1 Las Vegas Strip - Part 2 Las Vegas Strip - Part 3 Las Vegas Strip - Part 4 Las Vegas Strip - Part 5 Tom Devlin's Monster Museum - Boulder City Hoover Dam Lake Mead - Lakeview Overlook - Boulder City Nelson Ghost Town - Searchlight
CALIFORNIA:
Scenic Route through Joshua Tree National Park via the North Entrance Hidden Valley Trail - Joshua Tree National Park Barker Dam Trail - Joshua Tree National Park Cap Rock Trail - Joshua Tree National Park Keys View Trail - Joshua Tree National Park Hall of Horrors Trail - Joshua Tree National Park Skull Rock Trail - Joshua Tree National Park Arch Rock Trail - Joshua Tree National Park Cholla Cactus Garden Trail - Joshua Tree National Park Lone Pine - Owens Valley Miss Alabama & Shark Fin - Alabama Hills - Owens Valley Lone Ranger Canyon - Alabama Hills - Owens Valley Mobius Arch Loop Trail (Heart Arch & Lathe Arch) - Alabama Hills - Owens Valley Eye of the Alabama Hills Arch - Alabama Hills - Owens Valley Boot & Cyclops Arches - Alabama Hills - Owens Valley One Mile Arch, Bowling Ball and Pins & Gunga Din Area - Alabama Hills - Owens Valley Whitney Portal Arch Trailhead - Alabama Hills - Owens Valley Fish Rocks & Trona Pinnacles - Mojave Desert Red Cliffs Trail - Red Rock Canyon State Park Hagen Canyon Nature Trail - Red Rock Canyon State Park Tour of Historic Downtown Tehachapi View of the Tehachapi Loop – Monolith César E. Chávez National Monument – Keene Discovering Bakersfield Kern County Museum – Bakersfield Bravo Farms, Tree House & Petting Zoo - Traver Walking Tour of Kingsburg Exploring Fresno Simonian Farms & Soul Consoling Japanese Internment Tower - Fresno Duncan Ceramic Products (iLoveToCreate) - Fresno Walking Tour of Modesto Wat Dhammararam Buddhist Temple - Stockton Walking Tour of Stockton Discovering Stockton University of the Pacific - Stockton Visiting Lodi Sutter's Fort State Historic Park - Sacramento California State Capitol - Sacramento Walking Tour - Sacramento Walking Tour - Winters Walking Tour - Napa The Chandelier Tree In Drive-Thru Tree Park - Leggett One Log House - Garberville Grandfather Tree - Piercy The Living Chimney Tree - Avenue of the Giants Stephens Grove Loop Trail - Avenue of the Giants Gould Grove Nature Loop Trail - Avenue of the Giants Fleishmann Grove Trail - Avenue of the Giants Mahan Plaque Trail - Avenue of the Giants Founders Grove Nature Loop Trail - Avenue of the Giants Eternal Tree House & Immortal Tree - Avenue of the Giants Drury-Chaney Loop Trail - Avenue of the Giants Walking Tour - Redcrest
COMING UP NEXT:
USA Road Trip 2023 - Part 2
USA 2022 Road Trip
During our first road trip across the United States, we covered 23,000 km and crossed 28 states in 53 days.
Originally, we had planned to drive Route 66 all the way to Oatman in Arizona and visit various national parks in the American West over a two-month period.
This itinerary was planned before our departure, and all the relevant information had been gathered to stick to the schedule.
Everything went so smoothly that we finished visiting the national parks well ahead of our planned return date.
It helped that having a bed, a portable toilet, and a cooler in our vehicle gave us some autonomy since we didn’t have to worry about accommodation.
So, we decided to extend our road trip to the cities of Nashville and Memphis in Tennessee.
We then headed to Louisiana to visit Baton Rouge and New Orleans.
We crossed Mississippi and Alabama before driving along Florida’s west coast all the way to Key West.
We returned via Florida’s east coast and then crossed the eastern U.S. states to get back to Quebec through the Jackman border crossing in Maine.
So, I invite you to keep reading this long recap, which will let you discover the different attractions we visited throughout this amazing journey.
Videos are included throughout the recap. Click on the image to start the video.
To jump to a specific post, here are the relevant links:
Route 66 - Illinois & Missouri Route 66 - St. Louis (Missouri) - Gateway Arch National Park Route 66 - Cuba (Missouri) - City Murals Route 66 - Springfield (Missouri) - Fantastic Caverns Route 66 - Kansas & Oklahoma Route 66 - Texas & Arizona Route 66 - Texas - The Stations of the Cross in Groom Route 66 - Texas - Panhandle - VW Slug Bug Ranch Texas - Palo Duro Canyon State Park - Juniper Trails Texas - Palo Duro Canyon State Park - The Lighthouse Trail Route 66 - Texas - Amarillo - Cadillac Ranch Route 66 - New Mexico - Santa Rosa Blue Hole New Mexico - Bandelier National Monument - Alcove House Trail via Main Loop Trail New Mexico - Bandelier National Monument - Tsankawi Ruins Trail New Mexico - White Rock Overlook Route 66 - New Mexico - Albuquerque - Old Town New Mexico - White Sands National Park New Mexico - White Sands National Park - Dune Life Nature Trail New Mexico - White Sands National Park - Playa Trail New Mexico - White Sands National Park - Interdune Boardwalk New Mexico - Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument New Mexico - Grants - Ice Cave & Bandera Volcano New Mexico - Gallup - Pyramide Rock Trail & Church Rock Trail Arizona - Holbrook - Painted Desert Arizona - Petrified Forest National Park - Puerco Pueblo & Newspaper Rock Viewpoint Arizona - Petrified Forest National Park - Blue Mesa Arizona - Petrified Forest National Park - The Teepees, Agate Bridge & Jasper Forest Overlook Arizona - Petrified Forest National Park - Crystal Forest Trail Arizona - Petrified Forest National Park - Giant Logs Trail Arizona - Winslow - Two Guns Ghost Town Arizona - Cameron - Little Colorado River Gorge Overlooks Arizona - Grand Canyon National Park - Shoshone Point Trail Arizona - Grand Canyon National Park - Desert View Drive Arizona - Grand Canyon National Park - Rim Route (Orange) & Village Route (Blue) Arizona - Grand Canyon National Park - Hermit Route (Red Line) Route 66 - Arizona - Historic Town of Oatman Arizona - Bullhead City Community Park Nevada - Red Rock Canyon - Calico I & II & Sandstone Quarry Nevada - Red Rock Canyon - Willow Springs Nevada - Red Rock Canyon Lookouts Nevada - Valley of Fire State Park - White Domes Trail Nevada - Valley of Fire State Park - Seven Wonders Trail, Pink Canyon, Fire Wave Nevada - Valley of Fire State Park - Rainbow Vista Trail Nevada - Valley of Fire State Park - Mouse's Tank Trail Nevada - Valley of Fire State Park - Rock Formations Nevada - Valley of Fire State Park - Scenic Routes Nevada - Cathedral Gorge State Park - Slot Canyons Nevada - Cathedral Gorge State Park - Eagle Point & Miller Point Utah - Bryce Canyon National Park - Mossy Cave & Tropic Ditch Waterfall Trail Utah - Bryce Canyon National Park - Scenic Drive Utah - Zion National Park - Pa'rus Trail Utah - Zion National Park - Sand Bench Trail Utah - Zion National Park - Emerald Pools Trail Utah - Zion National Park - West Rim Trail (Trail connecting to Angels Landing) Utah - Zion National Park - Riverside Walk Utah - Zion National Park - Court of The Patriarchs & Big Bend Utah - Zion National Park - Mount Carmel Highway Scenic Drive Utah - Kanab - Jackson Flat Reservoir Utah - Toadstools Trail in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument Arizona - Page - Glen Canyon Dam Overlook Arizona - Page - Glen Canyon National Recreation Area Arizona - Page - Horseshoe Bend Overlook Arizona - Page - Upper Antelope Canyon Arizona - Page - Navajo Canyon Boat Tour at Lake Powell Arizona - Page - Antelope Canyon X Arizona - Canyon de Chelly National Monument - Chelly Canyon Arizona - Canyon de Chelly National Monument - Canyon del Muerto Arizona - Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park Utah - Mexican Hat Utah - Mexican Hat - Goosenecks State Park Utah - Mexican Hat - Valley of the Gods Utah - The Moki Dugway Scenic Backway Utah - Blanding - Natural Bridges National Monument Utah - Lake Powell - Hite Crossing Bridge Utah - Lake Powell - Glen Canyon National Recreation Area - Hite Overlook Utah - Capitol Reef National Park - Chimney Rock Loop Trail Utah - Capitol Reef National Park - Hickman Bridge Trail Utah - Capitol Reef National Park - Grand Wash Trail Utah - Capitol Reef National Park - Sunset Point Trail Utah - Capitol Reef National Park - Goosenecks Trail Utah - Capitol Reef National Park - Viewpoints - Fruita Area Utah - Capitol Reef National Park - Viewpoints - Scenic Drive Utah - Capitol Reef National Park - Cassidy Arch Trail Utah - Capitol Reef National Park - On the way to Capitol Gorge Trailhead Utah - Capitol Reef National Park - Capitol Gorge Trailhead Utah - Monroe - Mystic Hot Springs Utah - Scenic Overlooks on UT-24, UT-119 & I-70 Utah - Arches National Park - Park Avenue Trail Utah - Arches National Park - Courthouse Towers Section's Viewpoints Utah - Arches National Park - Balanced Rock, Pothole Arch, Ham Rock & Garden of Eden Utah - Arches National Park - Double Arch Trail, Cove Arch, Cove of Caves & Panorama Point Utah - Arches National Park - Windows Loop & Turret Arch Trail Utah - Arches National Park - Delicate Arch Trail Utah - Arches National Park - Upper Delicate Arch Viewpoint Trail Utah - Arches National Park - Fiery Furnace Section - Viewpoints Utah - Arches National Park - Sand Dune Arch Trail Utah - Arches National Park - Skyline Arch Trail Utah - Arches National Park - Devils Garden Trail Utah - Dead Horse Point State Park - West Rim Trail Utah - Dead Horse Point State Park - East Rim Trail Utah - Moab - Utah State Route 279 (Potash Road) Utah - Moab - Shafer Trail - Potash Evaporation Ponds Utah - Moab - Potash Road Dinosaur Tracks and Petroglyphs Utah - Moab - Potash Road - Corona, Bowtie & Pinto Arches Trail Utah - Moab - Potash Road - Wall Street Climbing Area Utah - Moab - Kane Springs Road Utah - Moab - Kane Springs Road - Side By Side Adventure Utah - Moab - Kane Springs Road to Moab Utah - Canyonlands National Park - Island in the Sky - Mesa Arch Trail Utah - Canyonlands National Park - Island in the Sky - Aztec Butte Trail Utah - Canyonlands National Park - Island in the Sky - Whale Rock Trail Utah - Canyonlands National Park - Island in the Sky - Upheaval Dome Trail Utah - Canyonlands National Park - Island in the Sky - Grand View Point Overlook Trail Utah - Canyonlands National Park - Island in the Sky - White Rim Overlook Trail Utah - Canyonlands National Park - Island in the Sky - Overlooks Utah - Moab - Wilson Arch Utah - Monticello - Newspaper Rock State Historical Monument Utah - Canyonlands National Park - The Needles - Road Side Ruin Trail Utah - Canyonlands National Park - The Needles - Cave Spring Trail Utah - Canyonlands National Park - The Needles - Pothole Point Trail Utah - Canyonlands National Park - The Needles - Big Spring Canyon Overlook Trail Utah - Canyonlands National Park - The Needles - Overlooks Colorado - Mesa Verde National Park - Mesa Top Ruins Road Colorado - Mesa Verde National Park - Chapin Mesa Road Colorado - Mesa Verde National Park - Mesa Top Loop Colorado - Mesa Verde National Park - Wetherill Mesa Road Colorado - Great Sand Dunes National Park Colorado - Mosca - Zapata Falls Colorado - Colorado Springs - Garden of the Gods Colorado - Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park Colorado - Gunnison - Curecanti National Recreation Area Colorado - Gunnison - Blue Mesa Dam & Reservoir Colorado - Lake Pueblo State Park (Pueblo Reservoir) Kentucky - Mayfield, 5 months after an EF4 tornado Tennessee - Nashville - Downtown Walking Tour Tennessee - Graceland Mansion - Home of Elvis Presley Tennessee - Graceland - Lisa Marie & Hound Dog II Jets Tennessee - Graceland - Elvis Presley Automobile Museum & Exhibits Tennessee - Exploring Memphis Louisiana - Exploring Baton Rouge Louisiana - Exploring Lafayette Louisiana - Exploring Houma Louisiana - New Orleans - French Quarter Tour Louisiana - New Orleans - Garden District Tour Louisiana - New Orleans - Creole Queen Mississippi River Cruise Florida - Clearwater Beach Florida - Sanibel Island - Bowman's Beach Florida - Siesta Key Beach Florida - Captiva Island - Turner Beach Florida - Key Largo - Sunset Florida - Key West - Smathers Beach Florida - Miami Beach - Art Deco District Florida - Miami Beach South Carolina - Myrtle Beach Virginia - Virginia Beach Maine - Scarborough - Pine Point Beach
Originally, we had planned to drive Route 66 all the way to Oatman in Arizona and visit various national parks in the American West over a two-month period.
This itinerary was planned before our departure, and all the relevant information had been gathered to stick to the schedule.
Everything went so smoothly that we finished visiting the national parks well ahead of our planned return date.
It helped that having a bed, a portable toilet, and a cooler in our vehicle gave us some autonomy since we didn’t have to worry about accommodation.
So, we decided to extend our road trip to the cities of Nashville and Memphis in Tennessee.
We then headed to Louisiana to visit Baton Rouge and New Orleans.
We crossed Mississippi and Alabama before driving along Florida’s west coast all the way to Key West.
We returned via Florida’s east coast and then crossed the eastern U.S. states to get back to Quebec through the Jackman border crossing in Maine.
So, I invite you to keep reading this long recap, which will let you discover the different attractions we visited throughout this amazing journey.
Videos are included throughout the recap. Click on the image to start the video.
To jump to a specific post, here are the relevant links:
Route 66 - Illinois & Missouri Route 66 - St. Louis (Missouri) - Gateway Arch National Park Route 66 - Cuba (Missouri) - City Murals Route 66 - Springfield (Missouri) - Fantastic Caverns Route 66 - Kansas & Oklahoma Route 66 - Texas & Arizona Route 66 - Texas - The Stations of the Cross in Groom Route 66 - Texas - Panhandle - VW Slug Bug Ranch Texas - Palo Duro Canyon State Park - Juniper Trails Texas - Palo Duro Canyon State Park - The Lighthouse Trail Route 66 - Texas - Amarillo - Cadillac Ranch Route 66 - New Mexico - Santa Rosa Blue Hole New Mexico - Bandelier National Monument - Alcove House Trail via Main Loop Trail New Mexico - Bandelier National Monument - Tsankawi Ruins Trail New Mexico - White Rock Overlook Route 66 - New Mexico - Albuquerque - Old Town New Mexico - White Sands National Park New Mexico - White Sands National Park - Dune Life Nature Trail New Mexico - White Sands National Park - Playa Trail New Mexico - White Sands National Park - Interdune Boardwalk New Mexico - Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument New Mexico - Grants - Ice Cave & Bandera Volcano New Mexico - Gallup - Pyramide Rock Trail & Church Rock Trail Arizona - Holbrook - Painted Desert Arizona - Petrified Forest National Park - Puerco Pueblo & Newspaper Rock Viewpoint Arizona - Petrified Forest National Park - Blue Mesa Arizona - Petrified Forest National Park - The Teepees, Agate Bridge & Jasper Forest Overlook Arizona - Petrified Forest National Park - Crystal Forest Trail Arizona - Petrified Forest National Park - Giant Logs Trail Arizona - Winslow - Two Guns Ghost Town Arizona - Cameron - Little Colorado River Gorge Overlooks Arizona - Grand Canyon National Park - Shoshone Point Trail Arizona - Grand Canyon National Park - Desert View Drive Arizona - Grand Canyon National Park - Rim Route (Orange) & Village Route (Blue) Arizona - Grand Canyon National Park - Hermit Route (Red Line) Route 66 - Arizona - Historic Town of Oatman Arizona - Bullhead City Community Park Nevada - Red Rock Canyon - Calico I & II & Sandstone Quarry Nevada - Red Rock Canyon - Willow Springs Nevada - Red Rock Canyon Lookouts Nevada - Valley of Fire State Park - White Domes Trail Nevada - Valley of Fire State Park - Seven Wonders Trail, Pink Canyon, Fire Wave Nevada - Valley of Fire State Park - Rainbow Vista Trail Nevada - Valley of Fire State Park - Mouse's Tank Trail Nevada - Valley of Fire State Park - Rock Formations Nevada - Valley of Fire State Park - Scenic Routes Nevada - Cathedral Gorge State Park - Slot Canyons Nevada - Cathedral Gorge State Park - Eagle Point & Miller Point Utah - Bryce Canyon National Park - Mossy Cave & Tropic Ditch Waterfall Trail Utah - Bryce Canyon National Park - Scenic Drive Utah - Zion National Park - Pa'rus Trail Utah - Zion National Park - Sand Bench Trail Utah - Zion National Park - Emerald Pools Trail Utah - Zion National Park - West Rim Trail (Trail connecting to Angels Landing) Utah - Zion National Park - Riverside Walk Utah - Zion National Park - Court of The Patriarchs & Big Bend Utah - Zion National Park - Mount Carmel Highway Scenic Drive Utah - Kanab - Jackson Flat Reservoir Utah - Toadstools Trail in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument Arizona - Page - Glen Canyon Dam Overlook Arizona - Page - Glen Canyon National Recreation Area Arizona - Page - Horseshoe Bend Overlook Arizona - Page - Upper Antelope Canyon Arizona - Page - Navajo Canyon Boat Tour at Lake Powell Arizona - Page - Antelope Canyon X Arizona - Canyon de Chelly National Monument - Chelly Canyon Arizona - Canyon de Chelly National Monument - Canyon del Muerto Arizona - Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park Utah - Mexican Hat Utah - Mexican Hat - Goosenecks State Park Utah - Mexican Hat - Valley of the Gods Utah - The Moki Dugway Scenic Backway Utah - Blanding - Natural Bridges National Monument Utah - Lake Powell - Hite Crossing Bridge Utah - Lake Powell - Glen Canyon National Recreation Area - Hite Overlook Utah - Capitol Reef National Park - Chimney Rock Loop Trail Utah - Capitol Reef National Park - Hickman Bridge Trail Utah - Capitol Reef National Park - Grand Wash Trail Utah - Capitol Reef National Park - Sunset Point Trail Utah - Capitol Reef National Park - Goosenecks Trail Utah - Capitol Reef National Park - Viewpoints - Fruita Area Utah - Capitol Reef National Park - Viewpoints - Scenic Drive Utah - Capitol Reef National Park - Cassidy Arch Trail Utah - Capitol Reef National Park - On the way to Capitol Gorge Trailhead Utah - Capitol Reef National Park - Capitol Gorge Trailhead Utah - Monroe - Mystic Hot Springs Utah - Scenic Overlooks on UT-24, UT-119 & I-70 Utah - Arches National Park - Park Avenue Trail Utah - Arches National Park - Courthouse Towers Section's Viewpoints Utah - Arches National Park - Balanced Rock, Pothole Arch, Ham Rock & Garden of Eden Utah - Arches National Park - Double Arch Trail, Cove Arch, Cove of Caves & Panorama Point Utah - Arches National Park - Windows Loop & Turret Arch Trail Utah - Arches National Park - Delicate Arch Trail Utah - Arches National Park - Upper Delicate Arch Viewpoint Trail Utah - Arches National Park - Fiery Furnace Section - Viewpoints Utah - Arches National Park - Sand Dune Arch Trail Utah - Arches National Park - Skyline Arch Trail Utah - Arches National Park - Devils Garden Trail Utah - Dead Horse Point State Park - West Rim Trail Utah - Dead Horse Point State Park - East Rim Trail Utah - Moab - Utah State Route 279 (Potash Road) Utah - Moab - Shafer Trail - Potash Evaporation Ponds Utah - Moab - Potash Road Dinosaur Tracks and Petroglyphs Utah - Moab - Potash Road - Corona, Bowtie & Pinto Arches Trail Utah - Moab - Potash Road - Wall Street Climbing Area Utah - Moab - Kane Springs Road Utah - Moab - Kane Springs Road - Side By Side Adventure Utah - Moab - Kane Springs Road to Moab Utah - Canyonlands National Park - Island in the Sky - Mesa Arch Trail Utah - Canyonlands National Park - Island in the Sky - Aztec Butte Trail Utah - Canyonlands National Park - Island in the Sky - Whale Rock Trail Utah - Canyonlands National Park - Island in the Sky - Upheaval Dome Trail Utah - Canyonlands National Park - Island in the Sky - Grand View Point Overlook Trail Utah - Canyonlands National Park - Island in the Sky - White Rim Overlook Trail Utah - Canyonlands National Park - Island in the Sky - Overlooks Utah - Moab - Wilson Arch Utah - Monticello - Newspaper Rock State Historical Monument Utah - Canyonlands National Park - The Needles - Road Side Ruin Trail Utah - Canyonlands National Park - The Needles - Cave Spring Trail Utah - Canyonlands National Park - The Needles - Pothole Point Trail Utah - Canyonlands National Park - The Needles - Big Spring Canyon Overlook Trail Utah - Canyonlands National Park - The Needles - Overlooks Colorado - Mesa Verde National Park - Mesa Top Ruins Road Colorado - Mesa Verde National Park - Chapin Mesa Road Colorado - Mesa Verde National Park - Mesa Top Loop Colorado - Mesa Verde National Park - Wetherill Mesa Road Colorado - Great Sand Dunes National Park Colorado - Mosca - Zapata Falls Colorado - Colorado Springs - Garden of the Gods Colorado - Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park Colorado - Gunnison - Curecanti National Recreation Area Colorado - Gunnison - Blue Mesa Dam & Reservoir Colorado - Lake Pueblo State Park (Pueblo Reservoir) Kentucky - Mayfield, 5 months after an EF4 tornado Tennessee - Nashville - Downtown Walking Tour Tennessee - Graceland Mansion - Home of Elvis Presley Tennessee - Graceland - Lisa Marie & Hound Dog II Jets Tennessee - Graceland - Elvis Presley Automobile Museum & Exhibits Tennessee - Exploring Memphis Louisiana - Exploring Baton Rouge Louisiana - Exploring Lafayette Louisiana - Exploring Houma Louisiana - New Orleans - French Quarter Tour Louisiana - New Orleans - Garden District Tour Louisiana - New Orleans - Creole Queen Mississippi River Cruise Florida - Clearwater Beach Florida - Sanibel Island - Bowman's Beach Florida - Siesta Key Beach Florida - Captiva Island - Turner Beach Florida - Key Largo - Sunset Florida - Key West - Smathers Beach Florida - Miami Beach - Art Deco District Florida - Miami Beach South Carolina - Myrtle Beach Virginia - Virginia Beach Maine - Scarborough - Pine Point Beach
Travel tips for Québec / Toronto.
Hi everyone,
We’re planning to head to Québec on June 11th (departing from CDG) and return around July 3rd, leaving from Toronto—so about 3 weeks there, traveling by rental car.
We’re thinking of stopping in Ottawa to visit a friend.
We’d love to see the "must-see" spots, but not *too* many, along with nature, parks, some short hikes, canoeing, a seaplane ride, and wrapping up with Niagara Falls.
Do you think we can fit all that into the time we have?
What are the spots you’d recommend not missing along our route?
Is a short trip to Gaspésie at the start of our trip worth considering?
Anyway, as you’ve probably guessed, we’re still in the early planning stages and aren’t quite sure how to organize everything 🤪
Thanks in advance for your thoughts and advice!
What are the criteria that make you choose one destination over another?
Hi there,
The title might be a bit long, but I hope it’s completely understandable!
When it comes to choosing your next trip, what tips the scales in favor of Eritrea over Ibiza?
Why pick Canada over French Polynesia?
The price? A magazine or TV report, a travel journal, an Instagram ad? Ease of travel? Minimal time difference? The country that has the most in common with all the trip participants? Activities? Relaxation? The desire to push your limits?
A photo?
What else, I wonder...
Personally, I often prioritize simple destinations (no administrative hassles), where I’m not at risk (nothing extraordinary like getting kidnapped by Daesh or ending up in a jail cell because the current geopolitics aren’t favorable to my passport, etc.), and where I can drive.
Wide-open natural spaces are more my thing than urban anthills.
Finally, I try not to spend three days on a plane to reach my destination, and I aim for a maximum budget of 3500 € (for 3 weeks) in comfortable conditions—that means charming hotels, good meals, etc.
What about you?🙂
The title might be a bit long, but I hope it’s completely understandable!
When it comes to choosing your next trip, what tips the scales in favor of Eritrea over Ibiza?
Why pick Canada over French Polynesia?
The price? A magazine or TV report, a travel journal, an Instagram ad? Ease of travel? Minimal time difference? The country that has the most in common with all the trip participants? Activities? Relaxation? The desire to push your limits?
A photo?
What else, I wonder...
Personally, I often prioritize simple destinations (no administrative hassles), where I’m not at risk (nothing extraordinary like getting kidnapped by Daesh or ending up in a jail cell because the current geopolitics aren’t favorable to my passport, etc.), and where I can drive.
Wide-open natural spaces are more my thing than urban anthills.
Finally, I try not to spend three days on a plane to reach my destination, and I aim for a maximum budget of 3500 € (for 3 weeks) in comfortable conditions—that means charming hotels, good meals, etc.
What about you?🙂
So where are they and what are they doing?
This catchy and somewhat mysterious title comes from several questions I’ve been asking myself.
VF has been back open for a reasonable number of weeks and months now. The number of visitors overall matches past averages, but the number of members online in the last 24 hours seems relatively lower than what we used to see.
Yet, to my surprise, I’m seeing fewer travel journals, way fewer messages, and way fewer questions. I don’t see many new registered users online, and I notice a number of members who are logged in but either aren’t participating or have stopped participating.
Something’s not adding up for me because, in my opinion, VF is still appealing, and I don’t see which other sites could really compete.
Was there a real break between pre- and post-Covid? Does it just take more time for some people to discover the site or learn that it’s active again? Do people now prefer quick consumption on sites like FB or others I’m not familiar with? Where have the site’s old-timers gone, and what are they doing with their time now? What’s really going on here?
VF has been back open for a reasonable number of weeks and months now. The number of visitors overall matches past averages, but the number of members online in the last 24 hours seems relatively lower than what we used to see.
Yet, to my surprise, I’m seeing fewer travel journals, way fewer messages, and way fewer questions. I don’t see many new registered users online, and I notice a number of members who are logged in but either aren’t participating or have stopped participating.
Something’s not adding up for me because, in my opinion, VF is still appealing, and I don’t see which other sites could really compete.
Was there a real break between pre- and post-Covid? Does it just take more time for some people to discover the site or learn that it’s active again? Do people now prefer quick consumption on sites like FB or others I’m not familiar with? Where have the site’s old-timers gone, and what are they doing with their time now? What’s really going on here?
Accommodation near the beach in Koh Samui
Hi there, We're thinking of spending 3 weeks in Koh Samui at the start of 2026. Where can we find accommodation close to a pretty beach that's not too touristy but not isolated either, near a small town or village? We've already been to Surin Beach on Phuket Island. We really liked that spot, but we've heard Koh Samui is great too. Thanks for your tips!
Slow Travel or the Illusion of Authenticity
“Slow travel” is a concept that some tout as a philosophical revolution in travel. But on closer inspection, it’s nothing more than a marketing repackaging of an age-old practice.
This term is wrapped in an aura of intellectualism. It promises to reinvent the experience of travel by valuing slowness, contemplation, and cultural immersion.
The term “slow travel” claims to bring depth to travel, but it often relies on clichés.
Taking your time, meeting locals, avoiding quick visits—these practices have always existed and are nothing revolutionary.
Before the era of airplanes, high-speed trains, and express stays, traveling necessarily meant taking your time. Pilgrims, merchants, and explorers already practiced a form of “slow travel,” without hashtags or self-proclaimed spiritual guides.
Crossing lands on foot or by horse required total immersion in the landscapes, cultures, and unpredictability of the journey. Yet, no one attributed philosophical intentions to them: it was a necessity.
Slow travel, in its current version, may be less a philosophy than a reflection of the contradictions of an affluent class searching for meaning in a world they help overload.
So-called “slow” travel is presented as a privileged way to understand a culture, but this claim is debatable. A region never represents an entire country.
Immersing yourself in a community doesn’t guarantee a complete or more authentic understanding than any other way of traveling.
Slowness in itself doesn’t guarantee depth or ethics. You can immerse yourself in a place over a weekend, just as you can spend months in a country without grasping its subtleties.
By positioning itself as an antidote to “fast” tourism, slow travel fetishizes a temporality that only makes sense if it’s accompanied by real openness and an effort to integrate.
But this over-intellectualization often masks a desire to belong to a trend or a need to stand out socially.
Behind this posture sometimes lies a whim: the urge to reinvent one’s life elsewhere in an idealized form. But this quest for elsewhere remains fundamentally a way to escape or respond to unease, rather than a true commitment to the cultures visited.
When we talk about “encounters” while traveling, we often forget that these exchanges are facilitated by biased contexts. As a traveler, you’re seen as a temporary visitor, unattached, and that changes the dynamic.
Locals, whether curious or used to tourists, adopt a different stance than they would with a neighbor they see daily.
This interaction is also tinged with asymmetry: the traveler has the luxury of time and availability, while in daily life, personal concerns often take precedence over the desire to connect.
The flip side is that the openness displayed while traveling is often a facade. We boast about chatting with a fisherman or sharing a meal with a local family, but how many of these encounters lead to a real understanding of cultural differences or sincere reflection?
Once home, these moments become anecdotes, social trophies to show off, without fundamentally changing our relationship with others in our daily lives.
By imposing a definition, we push people to adapt their practices to fit an idealized model. This can lead to a paradoxical standardization: “slow travel” becomes a checklist of behaviors (meetings, immersion, slowness).
The “bobos” (bourgeois-bohemians), often in search of meaning in a world saturated with options, believe that giving a name to a practice grants it legitimacy or moral value. But this obsession with framing and theorizing travel only drains it of its spontaneity.
Someone who grew up at the crossroads of multiple cultures, on the other hand, doesn’t feel this need. For them, traveling isn’t a philosophical project but an intrinsic part of their life.
The very concept of “slow travel” can seem absurd: why glorify what’s simply natural?
Why try to turn into an ideology what should be a personal, intimate experience, free from semantic constraints?
Ultimately, this need for labeling, this frantic quest to name every gesture, reveals a society craving simplicity.
Travel, in its purest form, doesn’t need justification or slogans. It doesn’t need slowness or speed: it’s simply lived.
Perhaps the real challenge is to unlearn this Western habit of conceptualizing everything that should simply be felt.
For many, travel is a parenthesis, a temporary break from daily life. But if we reject this distinction between “home” and “elsewhere,” every human life becomes a continuous journey through varied environments.
From this perspective, “slow travel” loses all meaning, because living somewhere—whether for a week or five years—is part of the same experience of adaptation.
So, we ask the fans of marketing slogans: is travel a parenthesis or a journey?
“Slow travel” is often driven by a Western eco-bobo ideology, tinged with post-colonial guilt. This discourse promotes a supposedly virtuous way of traveling while forgetting that these practices remain a privilege.
Far from deconstructing power dynamics, it sometimes reinforces them by glorifying a different kind of consumption, still centered on comfort.
There’s also a condescending side to this rhetoric. By idealizing slowness, slow travel advocates imply that those who travel quickly or on a budget are less “authentic” in their approach.
Yet, isn’t that a form of contempt? Do those who leave for a well-deserved week after months of hard work deserve less consideration?
Concepts like “slow travel” or “sustainable tourism” seem hollow when reduced to marketing slogans or standardized behaviors. They confine travel to preconceived frameworks, stripping it of its spontaneous and unpredictable dimension.
Instead of categorizing, it would be more relevant to recognize the plurality of human experiences without trying to define them.
Slow travel doesn’t invent anything. It simply puts into words—and often slogans—what travel has always been for those who practice it with intention.
Maybe we should stop trying to theorize every movement and simply rediscover travel for what it is: a human experience, sometimes slow, sometimes fast, but always personal.
More info on our site
This term is wrapped in an aura of intellectualism. It promises to reinvent the experience of travel by valuing slowness, contemplation, and cultural immersion.
The term “slow travel” claims to bring depth to travel, but it often relies on clichés.
Taking your time, meeting locals, avoiding quick visits—these practices have always existed and are nothing revolutionary.
Before the era of airplanes, high-speed trains, and express stays, traveling necessarily meant taking your time. Pilgrims, merchants, and explorers already practiced a form of “slow travel,” without hashtags or self-proclaimed spiritual guides.
Crossing lands on foot or by horse required total immersion in the landscapes, cultures, and unpredictability of the journey. Yet, no one attributed philosophical intentions to them: it was a necessity.
Slow travel, in its current version, may be less a philosophy than a reflection of the contradictions of an affluent class searching for meaning in a world they help overload.
So-called “slow” travel is presented as a privileged way to understand a culture, but this claim is debatable. A region never represents an entire country.
Immersing yourself in a community doesn’t guarantee a complete or more authentic understanding than any other way of traveling.
Slowness in itself doesn’t guarantee depth or ethics. You can immerse yourself in a place over a weekend, just as you can spend months in a country without grasping its subtleties.
By positioning itself as an antidote to “fast” tourism, slow travel fetishizes a temporality that only makes sense if it’s accompanied by real openness and an effort to integrate.
But this over-intellectualization often masks a desire to belong to a trend or a need to stand out socially.
Behind this posture sometimes lies a whim: the urge to reinvent one’s life elsewhere in an idealized form. But this quest for elsewhere remains fundamentally a way to escape or respond to unease, rather than a true commitment to the cultures visited.
When we talk about “encounters” while traveling, we often forget that these exchanges are facilitated by biased contexts. As a traveler, you’re seen as a temporary visitor, unattached, and that changes the dynamic.
Locals, whether curious or used to tourists, adopt a different stance than they would with a neighbor they see daily.
This interaction is also tinged with asymmetry: the traveler has the luxury of time and availability, while in daily life, personal concerns often take precedence over the desire to connect.
The flip side is that the openness displayed while traveling is often a facade. We boast about chatting with a fisherman or sharing a meal with a local family, but how many of these encounters lead to a real understanding of cultural differences or sincere reflection?
Once home, these moments become anecdotes, social trophies to show off, without fundamentally changing our relationship with others in our daily lives.
By imposing a definition, we push people to adapt their practices to fit an idealized model. This can lead to a paradoxical standardization: “slow travel” becomes a checklist of behaviors (meetings, immersion, slowness).
The “bobos” (bourgeois-bohemians), often in search of meaning in a world saturated with options, believe that giving a name to a practice grants it legitimacy or moral value. But this obsession with framing and theorizing travel only drains it of its spontaneity.
Someone who grew up at the crossroads of multiple cultures, on the other hand, doesn’t feel this need. For them, traveling isn’t a philosophical project but an intrinsic part of their life.
The very concept of “slow travel” can seem absurd: why glorify what’s simply natural?
Why try to turn into an ideology what should be a personal, intimate experience, free from semantic constraints?
Ultimately, this need for labeling, this frantic quest to name every gesture, reveals a society craving simplicity.
Travel, in its purest form, doesn’t need justification or slogans. It doesn’t need slowness or speed: it’s simply lived.
Perhaps the real challenge is to unlearn this Western habit of conceptualizing everything that should simply be felt.
For many, travel is a parenthesis, a temporary break from daily life. But if we reject this distinction between “home” and “elsewhere,” every human life becomes a continuous journey through varied environments.
From this perspective, “slow travel” loses all meaning, because living somewhere—whether for a week or five years—is part of the same experience of adaptation.
So, we ask the fans of marketing slogans: is travel a parenthesis or a journey?
“Slow travel” is often driven by a Western eco-bobo ideology, tinged with post-colonial guilt. This discourse promotes a supposedly virtuous way of traveling while forgetting that these practices remain a privilege.
Far from deconstructing power dynamics, it sometimes reinforces them by glorifying a different kind of consumption, still centered on comfort.
There’s also a condescending side to this rhetoric. By idealizing slowness, slow travel advocates imply that those who travel quickly or on a budget are less “authentic” in their approach.
Yet, isn’t that a form of contempt? Do those who leave for a well-deserved week after months of hard work deserve less consideration?
Concepts like “slow travel” or “sustainable tourism” seem hollow when reduced to marketing slogans or standardized behaviors. They confine travel to preconceived frameworks, stripping it of its spontaneous and unpredictable dimension.
Instead of categorizing, it would be more relevant to recognize the plurality of human experiences without trying to define them.
Slow travel doesn’t invent anything. It simply puts into words—and often slogans—what travel has always been for those who practice it with intention.
Maybe we should stop trying to theorize every movement and simply rediscover travel for what it is: a human experience, sometimes slow, sometimes fast, but always personal.
More info on our site
Three weeks in Quebec at the start of summer 2018, on a "semi-organized" trip
I’ve been putting off posting my Quebec travel experience for a long time. Two years later, I’ve finally decided to share it. The memories are still vivid. I hope this gives you the urge to visit this beautiful region, which I literally fell in love with.
We’re traveling as four adults: my brother Guy, my sister-in-law Martine, my friend Pascal, and myself (Christian).
We entrusted the flight, hotel, and car reservations to the travel agency Amplitudes in Toulouse. Planning the day-to-day activities was up to us. We scheduled a few must-see visits, but for the rest, we’d figure it out on the spot.
Our itinerary: Quebec City / Rimouski / Carleton-sur-Mer / Percé / Sainte-Anne-des-Monts / Matane / Tadoussac / Sainte-Rose-du-Nord / Chambord / Saint-Alexis-des-Monts / Montreal
06/25 Here we are at Roissy Charles de Gaulle for the usual pre-flight formalities. Everything goes smoothly and quickly. The hardest part is waiting for takeoff. After an uneventful flight on an Air Canada Boeing 777-300ER, we land at Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau Airport (YUL) in the early afternoon.
At customs, a surprise—no grumpy officer, but a smiling customs agent who jokingly asks me to name three tourist spots in Quebec, or else he won’t let me in. I pass the test easily and enter Quebec!
We head to the Alamo counter at Trudeau Airport to pick up our car: a Ford Escape with only 300 kilometers on the odometer.
We decided to head straight to Quebec City, saving Montreal for the end of the trip. Pascal takes the wheel and gets on the Trans-Canada Highway E20 for a 255 km drive, taking about 2 hours and 45 minutes. With the time difference, we’re already feeling hungry, so we stop for our first poutine at a highway restaurant.
When we arrive in Quebec City, we go straight to the Clarendon Hotel, located right in the heart of Old Quebec. We’ll be staying there for three nights. Tonight, no restaurant—just a short walk around the hotel before bed. We discover a square with pretty colored water fountains near the city hall.
It’s only 9 PM, but our body clocks say it’s 3 AM.
We’re traveling as four adults: my brother Guy, my sister-in-law Martine, my friend Pascal, and myself (Christian).
We entrusted the flight, hotel, and car reservations to the travel agency Amplitudes in Toulouse. Planning the day-to-day activities was up to us. We scheduled a few must-see visits, but for the rest, we’d figure it out on the spot.
Our itinerary: Quebec City / Rimouski / Carleton-sur-Mer / Percé / Sainte-Anne-des-Monts / Matane / Tadoussac / Sainte-Rose-du-Nord / Chambord / Saint-Alexis-des-Monts / Montreal
06/25 Here we are at Roissy Charles de Gaulle for the usual pre-flight formalities. Everything goes smoothly and quickly. The hardest part is waiting for takeoff. After an uneventful flight on an Air Canada Boeing 777-300ER, we land at Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau Airport (YUL) in the early afternoon.
At customs, a surprise—no grumpy officer, but a smiling customs agent who jokingly asks me to name three tourist spots in Quebec, or else he won’t let me in. I pass the test easily and enter Quebec!
We head to the Alamo counter at Trudeau Airport to pick up our car: a Ford Escape with only 300 kilometers on the odometer.
We decided to head straight to Quebec City, saving Montreal for the end of the trip. Pascal takes the wheel and gets on the Trans-Canada Highway E20 for a 255 km drive, taking about 2 hours and 45 minutes. With the time difference, we’re already feeling hungry, so we stop for our first poutine at a highway restaurant.
When we arrive in Quebec City, we go straight to the Clarendon Hotel, located right in the heart of Old Quebec. We’ll be staying there for three nights. Tonight, no restaurant—just a short walk around the hotel before bed. We discover a square with pretty colored water fountains near the city hall.
It’s only 9 PM, but our body clocks say it’s 3 AM.Concrete changes in how you travel during the crisis
Hi everyone,
I was wondering how the coronavirus pandemic has impacted the way you travel or plan your trips. I know some of these points have been discussed before, but what I’m interested in here is the concrete, present, and personal—no politics and nothing post-COVID.
Here are a few ideas—do any of these resonate with you?
- Traveling shorter distances / for shorter durations - Favoring rural or less crowded areas over urban or overcrowded ones - Opting for private transportation over public transit - Traveling solo or at least in pairs rather than in groups - Waiting until the crisis is over and saving money in the meantime - Reassessing health risks (and updating your first-aid kit/medications and vaccinations) - ...
I’m sure you’ll have other things to add. The floor is yours!
I was wondering how the coronavirus pandemic has impacted the way you travel or plan your trips. I know some of these points have been discussed before, but what I’m interested in here is the concrete, present, and personal—no politics and nothing post-COVID.
Here are a few ideas—do any of these resonate with you?
- Traveling shorter distances / for shorter durations - Favoring rural or less crowded areas over urban or overcrowded ones - Opting for private transportation over public transit - Traveling solo or at least in pairs rather than in groups - Waiting until the crisis is over and saving money in the meantime - Reassessing health risks (and updating your first-aid kit/medications and vaccinations) - ...
I’m sure you’ll have other things to add. The floor is yours!
Avez-vous changé votre rapport aux voyages à cause du Covid? English translation pending
Bonsoir à tous,
Etant en train de réfléchir à d'éventuels futurs voyages, je me heurte bien sûr à la situation de la crise sanitaire.
Cela a-t-il affecté votre façon de voyager et prévoir vos voyages ?
Là par ex, je regarde les destinations où le masque n'est pas obligatoire à l'extérieur, où il n'y a pas (trop) de risque de quarantaine, etc.
Mais aussi les conditions d'annulations/report selon les pays.
Je vois qu'Airbnb ne remboursera pas les voyageurs en cas de confinement ou quarantaine. C'est donc la course aux logement flexibles, il y en a peu... pour l'avion cela dépend de la compagnie.
Mon prochain voyage prévu et payé, c'est avec Wizz Air pour la Pologne. Pas de remboursement (sauf si vol annulé bien sûr) mais les prix étant faibles, je prends le risque ! L'hébergement est annulable également.
Ces paramètres influent sur le choix des futurs destinations.
Et vous, comment procédez-vous ?
Etant en train de réfléchir à d'éventuels futurs voyages, je me heurte bien sûr à la situation de la crise sanitaire.
Cela a-t-il affecté votre façon de voyager et prévoir vos voyages ?
Là par ex, je regarde les destinations où le masque n'est pas obligatoire à l'extérieur, où il n'y a pas (trop) de risque de quarantaine, etc.
Mais aussi les conditions d'annulations/report selon les pays.
Je vois qu'Airbnb ne remboursera pas les voyageurs en cas de confinement ou quarantaine. C'est donc la course aux logement flexibles, il y en a peu... pour l'avion cela dépend de la compagnie.
Mon prochain voyage prévu et payé, c'est avec Wizz Air pour la Pologne. Pas de remboursement (sauf si vol annulé bien sûr) mais les prix étant faibles, je prends le risque ! L'hébergement est annulable également.
Ces paramètres influent sur le choix des futurs destinations.
Et vous, comment procédez-vous ?
Vous interdisez-vous de voyager dans certains pays pour des raisons morales ou politiques? English translation pending
Hallo les voyageurs !
J'ai une question pour vous qui vous baladez de par le vaste monde.
Est-ce que vous prenez en considération le régime politique d'un pays lorsque vous choisissez une destination ? En d'autres termes, est-ce que vous décidez de ne pas vous rendre dans certains pays pour ne pas légitimer en quelque sorte le régime en place ?
Dans le LP sur la Birmanie, ils posent la question : "should you go there ?" et ensuite ils essaient de peser le pour et le contre dans un passage dédié. Faites-vous de même ?
Par exemple, iriez-vous en Corée du Nord, en Chine, en Biélorussie ou en Iran pour ne citer que quelques charmants pays amis des droits de l'Homme ? Si oui, vous sentez-vous le besoin de vous justifier, et comment ? Sinon, quels sont vos raisons qui vous font reculer ?
J'ai parlé de morale dans mon titre, est-ce que ce terme vous semble approprié ?
A vous lire,
Claude
J'ai une question pour vous qui vous baladez de par le vaste monde.
Est-ce que vous prenez en considération le régime politique d'un pays lorsque vous choisissez une destination ? En d'autres termes, est-ce que vous décidez de ne pas vous rendre dans certains pays pour ne pas légitimer en quelque sorte le régime en place ?
Dans le LP sur la Birmanie, ils posent la question : "should you go there ?" et ensuite ils essaient de peser le pour et le contre dans un passage dédié. Faites-vous de même ?
Par exemple, iriez-vous en Corée du Nord, en Chine, en Biélorussie ou en Iran pour ne citer que quelques charmants pays amis des droits de l'Homme ? Si oui, vous sentez-vous le besoin de vous justifier, et comment ? Sinon, quels sont vos raisons qui vous font reculer ?
J'ai parlé de morale dans mon titre, est-ce que ce terme vous semble approprié ?
A vous lire,
Claude
Il est grand temps de rallumer les étoiles! English translation pending
Bonjour à tous
Le Vietnam pays magique multiculturel aux paysages diversifiés et époustouflants. Voilà ce que je vous invite à partager sans aborder s'il vous plaît ce qui aujourd'hui empêche la planète de vivre... Essayons d'être constructifs et positivons! Il est grand temps de rallumer les étoiles!
Pour commencer avec légèreté: La médecine des Dao, le bain aux herbes. C'est un moment délicieux après une journée de marche et de visites rien de tel pour vous requinquer! Ce bain est très souvent proposé aux touristes dans le nord, spécialité de l'ethnie Dao il est "accommodé" dans plusieurs maisons d'hôtes et hôtels aux besoins des touristes.
Traditionnellement les recettes sont destinées à chaque cas et en fonction de la pathologie: femmes enceintes ou qui viennent d'accoucher, nouveau-nés, malades, vieillards…les herbes seront donc choisies en fonction des besoins et du type de médication (orale, en bain, en emplâtre...). C'est dès l'aube que les femmes, les hommes, les chamanes iront cueillir ces plantes, racines et écorces dans la forêt, le tout sera combiné à un régime adapté (on ne mange pas de tout..) et souvent suivi d'un massage spécifique.
Nous en avons testé plusieurs à plusieurs endroits mais celui de la chamane Dao d'un petit village au nord de Muong Lay restera sans doute le plus authentique et le plus insolite.. On nous prend en main dès notre arrivée dans la maison de la chamane. Elle y vit avec sa fille et son gendre... Maison, je devrai plus dire assemblage de planches et de tôles et quand on connaît les rigueurs de l'hivers on peut rêver mieux. La pièce principale est bourrée de pots en tout genre remplis de décoctions plus ou moins troubles...ces sont les médications à avaler, beurk.. Il y a aussi de gros sacs (plastique) d'herbes, de racines, d'écorces, un vrai magasin d'herboriste (l'ordre et la propreté en moins) sans oublier bien sur l'hôtel des ancêtres. Derrière des rideaux, les couches des habitants, nous ne dormirons pas là, ouf.. Puis attenantes, les deux salles des bains avec 2 baquets chacune et entre les deux sous une pergola un énorme foyer construit en ciment surmonté d'une aussi énorme bassine où l'eau et les herbes "cuisent" jusqu'à parfois 12 heures...c'est là que l'on fait aussi cuire la soupe des cochons... Le feu est alimenté de poupée de maïs et de bois. C'est dans ces baquets que nous tromperont plus ou moins longtemps...le temps de "cuisson" est décidé par la chamane en fonction de chacun, jamais plus de 30 mm...et les herbes qui seront rajoutée dans les baquets seront aussi choisies en fonction de chaque "malade". C'est très très chaud, il faut vraiment se faire violence pour entrer là dedans et c'est sans compter qu'une fois immergés la dame ajoute de l'eau chaude bien sur...ouille. Une fois "les touristes bien cuits" on nous sort de là, inutile de préciser que nous ressemblons plus à des homards qu'à des visages pâles... Après cuisson, nous serons conduits ensuite vers le silo à grains, où une pièce spéciale massage à été aménagée à son top, on l'atteint via une échelle de bois...au sol deux couches. Ici commence le moment le plus douloureux de tous les massages faits au Vietnam par le gendre et la fille de la maison.. Pas de douces caresses, non, non, mais un pétrissage et un battage en bonne et due forme suivis de torsion, j'ai cru ma dernière heure arrivée... Pour clore la séance nous dînerons chez la chamane d'un souper spécial, la couleur des mets est importante, nous ne mangerons que du blanc et du vert....des légumes et des herbes inconnues de nous et un peu de poulet bouilli, élastique à souhait, sans doute celui que nous avons croisé sur le chemin en arrivant et des petits poissons frits (très bons). C'est sans conteste le meilleur soin reçu au Vietnam si l'on fait abstraction de la propreté des lieux, des serviettes (surtout apporter les siennes) et des moments douloureux.
Le Vietnam pays magique multiculturel aux paysages diversifiés et époustouflants. Voilà ce que je vous invite à partager sans aborder s'il vous plaît ce qui aujourd'hui empêche la planète de vivre... Essayons d'être constructifs et positivons! Il est grand temps de rallumer les étoiles!
Pour commencer avec légèreté: La médecine des Dao, le bain aux herbes. C'est un moment délicieux après une journée de marche et de visites rien de tel pour vous requinquer! Ce bain est très souvent proposé aux touristes dans le nord, spécialité de l'ethnie Dao il est "accommodé" dans plusieurs maisons d'hôtes et hôtels aux besoins des touristes.
Traditionnellement les recettes sont destinées à chaque cas et en fonction de la pathologie: femmes enceintes ou qui viennent d'accoucher, nouveau-nés, malades, vieillards…les herbes seront donc choisies en fonction des besoins et du type de médication (orale, en bain, en emplâtre...). C'est dès l'aube que les femmes, les hommes, les chamanes iront cueillir ces plantes, racines et écorces dans la forêt, le tout sera combiné à un régime adapté (on ne mange pas de tout..) et souvent suivi d'un massage spécifique.
Nous en avons testé plusieurs à plusieurs endroits mais celui de la chamane Dao d'un petit village au nord de Muong Lay restera sans doute le plus authentique et le plus insolite.. On nous prend en main dès notre arrivée dans la maison de la chamane. Elle y vit avec sa fille et son gendre... Maison, je devrai plus dire assemblage de planches et de tôles et quand on connaît les rigueurs de l'hivers on peut rêver mieux. La pièce principale est bourrée de pots en tout genre remplis de décoctions plus ou moins troubles...ces sont les médications à avaler, beurk.. Il y a aussi de gros sacs (plastique) d'herbes, de racines, d'écorces, un vrai magasin d'herboriste (l'ordre et la propreté en moins) sans oublier bien sur l'hôtel des ancêtres. Derrière des rideaux, les couches des habitants, nous ne dormirons pas là, ouf.. Puis attenantes, les deux salles des bains avec 2 baquets chacune et entre les deux sous une pergola un énorme foyer construit en ciment surmonté d'une aussi énorme bassine où l'eau et les herbes "cuisent" jusqu'à parfois 12 heures...c'est là que l'on fait aussi cuire la soupe des cochons... Le feu est alimenté de poupée de maïs et de bois. C'est dans ces baquets que nous tromperont plus ou moins longtemps...le temps de "cuisson" est décidé par la chamane en fonction de chacun, jamais plus de 30 mm...et les herbes qui seront rajoutée dans les baquets seront aussi choisies en fonction de chaque "malade". C'est très très chaud, il faut vraiment se faire violence pour entrer là dedans et c'est sans compter qu'une fois immergés la dame ajoute de l'eau chaude bien sur...ouille. Une fois "les touristes bien cuits" on nous sort de là, inutile de préciser que nous ressemblons plus à des homards qu'à des visages pâles... Après cuisson, nous serons conduits ensuite vers le silo à grains, où une pièce spéciale massage à été aménagée à son top, on l'atteint via une échelle de bois...au sol deux couches. Ici commence le moment le plus douloureux de tous les massages faits au Vietnam par le gendre et la fille de la maison.. Pas de douces caresses, non, non, mais un pétrissage et un battage en bonne et due forme suivis de torsion, j'ai cru ma dernière heure arrivée... Pour clore la séance nous dînerons chez la chamane d'un souper spécial, la couleur des mets est importante, nous ne mangerons que du blanc et du vert....des légumes et des herbes inconnues de nous et un peu de poulet bouilli, élastique à souhait, sans doute celui que nous avons croisé sur le chemin en arrivant et des petits poissons frits (très bons). C'est sans conteste le meilleur soin reçu au Vietnam si l'on fait abstraction de la propreté des lieux, des serviettes (surtout apporter les siennes) et des moments douloureux.
Concours photo de juillet 2020: Verticale(s) English translation pending
Bonjour 🙂
Après déjà dix ans depuis la première édition, nous voici au lancement du 120ème concours.
J’aime l'idée de garder la surprise des photos qui pourront être proposées, c’est pourquoi j’ai choisi un thème ouvert : Verticale(s). Il n’y aura pas de contrôle au fil à plomb, ça pourra pencher un peu mais raisonnablement. Pour accompagner le démarrage du concours, vous trouverez quelques pistes en bas de ce message.
Vous pourrez participer jusqu’au samedi 25 juillet à 23h59, heure de Paris. Chaque participant est autorisé à poster jusqu’à trois photos, numérotées de 1 à 3, en précisant le lieu de prise de vue. N’hésitez pas à accompagner vos photos de quelques lignes.
Le vote aura lieu du dimanche 26 juillet 0h01 au jeudi 30 juillet à 22h. Il est accessible à tous, participants ou non, dans la limite d’un vote, et se fera par l’attribution d’un total de six points répartis sur 3 ou 4 photos : Photo n°1 : 3 points Photo n°2 : 2 points Photo n°3 : 1 point - OU - Photo n°3A et photo n°3B : 1/2 point chacune
La photo gagnante sera celle qui aura remporté le plus de points. En cas d’égalité pour la première position, les photos seront départagées par le nombre de votes à 3 points, puis , si l'égalité persiste, par le nombre de votes à 2 points, etc.
Le ou la gagnant(e) aura le privilège d’organiser le concours suivant.
Ce fil est réservé aux photos participantes et aux votes. Pour le blabla ça se passe ici ! Le diaporama arrivera dans quelques jours et figurera dans ma signature.
C’est parti 🙂
Après déjà dix ans depuis la première édition, nous voici au lancement du 120ème concours.
J’aime l'idée de garder la surprise des photos qui pourront être proposées, c’est pourquoi j’ai choisi un thème ouvert : Verticale(s). Il n’y aura pas de contrôle au fil à plomb, ça pourra pencher un peu mais raisonnablement. Pour accompagner le démarrage du concours, vous trouverez quelques pistes en bas de ce message.
Vous pourrez participer jusqu’au samedi 25 juillet à 23h59, heure de Paris. Chaque participant est autorisé à poster jusqu’à trois photos, numérotées de 1 à 3, en précisant le lieu de prise de vue. N’hésitez pas à accompagner vos photos de quelques lignes.
Le vote aura lieu du dimanche 26 juillet 0h01 au jeudi 30 juillet à 22h. Il est accessible à tous, participants ou non, dans la limite d’un vote, et se fera par l’attribution d’un total de six points répartis sur 3 ou 4 photos : Photo n°1 : 3 points Photo n°2 : 2 points Photo n°3 : 1 point - OU - Photo n°3A et photo n°3B : 1/2 point chacune
La photo gagnante sera celle qui aura remporté le plus de points. En cas d’égalité pour la première position, les photos seront départagées par le nombre de votes à 3 points, puis , si l'égalité persiste, par le nombre de votes à 2 points, etc.
Le ou la gagnant(e) aura le privilège d’organiser le concours suivant.
Ce fil est réservé aux photos participantes et aux votes. Pour le blabla ça se passe ici ! Le diaporama arrivera dans quelques jours et figurera dans ma signature.
C’est parti 🙂
Découvrir la Pologne, oui, sans hésitation English translation pending
A force d'entendre toutes sortes de choses bizarres à propos de la Pologne, j'ai eu envie d'écrire un petit mot.
Je ne comprends pas pourquoi la Pologne a une image toute noire et arriérée dans la tête de beaucoup de Français. Je ne comprends pas pourquoi certain·e·s font plus de 2 500 km pour aller seulement à Auschwitz. Je ne comprends pas pourquoi on valorise celui-celle qui part en Espagne et on s'interroge sur la santé mentale de celui-celle qui va passer un moment de vacances en Pologne.
Bon, d'accord, la situation politique n'est pas idéale mais il faut aller s'asseoir sur un banc public qui diffuse du Chopin à Varsovie, se plonger dans la vie de Copernic à Torun... et, surtout, surtout, rencontrer les Polonais d'aujourd'hui. Aspects pratiques : le coût de la vie quotidienne est très avantageux pour les Français ;) et oui, oui, la frontière est ouverte, sans contraintes particulières https://reopen.europa.eu/fr/map/POL
Je ne cherche pas à faire la promotion du tourisme en Pologne, mais après y être retourné l'année dernière, je tente de modifier un peu des représentations qui me paraissent datées et injustes. Je ne veux pas allonger trop ce premier message. D'autres personnes viendront peut-être le compléter...
Je ne comprends pas pourquoi la Pologne a une image toute noire et arriérée dans la tête de beaucoup de Français. Je ne comprends pas pourquoi certain·e·s font plus de 2 500 km pour aller seulement à Auschwitz. Je ne comprends pas pourquoi on valorise celui-celle qui part en Espagne et on s'interroge sur la santé mentale de celui-celle qui va passer un moment de vacances en Pologne.
Bon, d'accord, la situation politique n'est pas idéale mais il faut aller s'asseoir sur un banc public qui diffuse du Chopin à Varsovie, se plonger dans la vie de Copernic à Torun... et, surtout, surtout, rencontrer les Polonais d'aujourd'hui. Aspects pratiques : le coût de la vie quotidienne est très avantageux pour les Français ;) et oui, oui, la frontière est ouverte, sans contraintes particulières https://reopen.europa.eu/fr/map/POL
Je ne cherche pas à faire la promotion du tourisme en Pologne, mais après y être retourné l'année dernière, je tente de modifier un peu des représentations qui me paraissent datées et injustes. Je ne veux pas allonger trop ce premier message. D'autres personnes viendront peut-être le compléter...
Frontières Canada-USA fermées jusqu'au 21 juillet English translation pending
https://www.lapresse.ca/covid-19/2020-06-16/huit-semaines-de-plus-de-pcu-la-frontiere-fermee-jusqu-au-21-juillet
VoIci la nouvelle que les gens attendaient ou pas....pas de voyage aux USA et Canada du moins jusqu’au 21 juillet...Annoncé tout à l’heure au dernier point de presse.
« Le premier ministre a par ailleurs confirmé mardi une information qui avait déjà commencé à circuler : le Canada et les États-Unis se sont entendus pour prolonger de 30 jours, jusqu’au 21 juillet, les mesures frontalières qui sont déjà en place. « C’est une décision qui va protéger les gens des deux côtés de la frontière alors qu’on continue de lutter contre la COVID-19 », a-t-il argué. Les déplacements non essentiels sont interdits entre les deux pays depuis le 21 mars dernier »
VoIci la nouvelle que les gens attendaient ou pas....pas de voyage aux USA et Canada du moins jusqu’au 21 juillet...Annoncé tout à l’heure au dernier point de presse.
« Le premier ministre a par ailleurs confirmé mardi une information qui avait déjà commencé à circuler : le Canada et les États-Unis se sont entendus pour prolonger de 30 jours, jusqu’au 21 juillet, les mesures frontalières qui sont déjà en place. « C’est une décision qui va protéger les gens des deux côtés de la frontière alors qu’on continue de lutter contre la COVID-19 », a-t-il argué. Les déplacements non essentiels sont interdits entre les deux pays depuis le 21 mars dernier »
Dans quel pays aimeriez-vous vous expatrier? English translation pending
Je saisis au vol cette remarque d'Attila (que je partage!)
Franchement, je serais le gouvernement, je demanderais l'asile en ...?... et dirais aux français, démerdez vous.
et cette autre :
On fait le coucou dans les discussions mais jamais on n'en entame une...
pour proposer un nouveau post sur un mode très différent de voyager.
Où aimeriez-vous partir vivre?
Bien sûr vous choisissez votre pays ou région d'accueil, on part du principe que ce n'est pas une obligation que l'on vous fait.
Et vous avez besoin de vous éloigner momentanément de votre lieu de vie habituel, pour quelque raison que ce soit.
Quels seraient les atouts locaux importants pour vous de cette nouvelle installation : population, climat, paysages, archéologie, autres .... ?
Franchement, je serais le gouvernement, je demanderais l'asile en ...?... et dirais aux français, démerdez vous.
et cette autre :
On fait le coucou dans les discussions mais jamais on n'en entame une...
pour proposer un nouveau post sur un mode très différent de voyager.
Où aimeriez-vous partir vivre?
Bien sûr vous choisissez votre pays ou région d'accueil, on part du principe que ce n'est pas une obligation que l'on vous fait.
Et vous avez besoin de vous éloigner momentanément de votre lieu de vie habituel, pour quelque raison que ce soit.
Quels seraient les atouts locaux importants pour vous de cette nouvelle installation : population, climat, paysages, archéologie, autres .... ?
Intérêt du Vietnam English translation pending
Je vous donne mon avis sincère de voyageur sur le Vietnam sachant que j'ai voyagé là-bas en février et que je ne suis pas allé au nord de Hanoï ni au sud de Nha Trang.
Pour juger un voyage, j'ai l'habitude de séparer l'aspect pratique d'un côté et l'intérêt des sites de l'autre.
Du côté « pratique », le Vietnam obtient un 19/20. Je n'entre pas dans le détail mais il est incroyablement facile et bon marché de voyager dans ce pays. Et avec des standards occidentaux voire meilleurs. Enormément de moyens de transport, hôtels d'excellente qualité et vraiment pas chers...
Entre l'aspect pratique et l'intérêt des sites, je mets la cuisine et le climat. Je ne vais pas écrire des lignes sur la cuisine qui fait tout simplement partie des tops mondiaux. Juste 2 bémols : les prix sont très élevés dans les restaus raffinés par rapport aux prix du pays. Et contrairement à la Chine, on peut tomber sur des restaus où on se moque des touristes. Résultat : un repas perdu alors que chaque repas peut se transformer en souvenir de rêve au Vietnam. Donc attention. Les guides touristiques écrits sont ici très utiles.
On est averti qu'au Vietnam le temps peu être gris. Et selon les sources, on peut reprendre espoir et se dire que finalement cette saison n'a pas l'air si mal. Pour ma part, je n'ai peut-être pas eu de chance mais alors j'en ai eu beaucoup dans les nombreux autres pays où je suis allé. Le ciel est souvent gris. Au nord, ça peut même être une attraction pour curieux de voir cette grisaille prête à vous tomber sur la tête. D'autre part, j'ai rarement vu une telle fraîcheur à une telle lattitude.
Les gens sont très sympas. Certains parlent anglais et il est très intéressant d'échanger avec les vietnamiens mais il faut savoir qu'ils ont un caractère trempé dans l'acier...
Les sites sont d'un intérêt limité. Le pays est surpeuplé et avide de développement. L'aspect traditionnel et religieux est quasi absent notamment par rapport à la Thaïlande. La nature est très très abîmée. Quand vous lisez les guides, vous vous dîtes que vous allez vous régaler à explorer les côtes ou qu'il y a des animaux à voir. C'est le problèmes des guides écrits qui ne comparent pas les pays entre eux. Ils vont utiliser les même adjectifs pour un pays moyen et pour les plus beaux pays. Oui, il y a des pays beaucoup mieux que d'autres ! En fait les côtes vietnamiennes ne sont pas terribles. Selon un guide les îles Cham sont un « époustouflant archipel ». Peut-être que si le Vietnam était le seul pays sur terre ce serait vrai mais il n'en est rien et il y a beaucoup mieux ailleurs. Les grottes de Phong Nha ouvertes au grand public sont d'un intérêt très limité et les autres sont vraiment très très chères d'accès et nécessitent souvent des réservations.
Mon but n'est pas de dénigrer le Vietnam mais d'éclairer les voyageurs car les guides ne le font pas. Je pense que le Vietnam est un pays idéal pour un retraité ou pour vivre quelques mois. Par contre si vous souhaitez découvrir ce qu'il y a de mieux en Asie du sud-est et que vous n'avez que quelques semaines par an, ne commencez pas par le Vietnam.
Pour juger un voyage, j'ai l'habitude de séparer l'aspect pratique d'un côté et l'intérêt des sites de l'autre.
Du côté « pratique », le Vietnam obtient un 19/20. Je n'entre pas dans le détail mais il est incroyablement facile et bon marché de voyager dans ce pays. Et avec des standards occidentaux voire meilleurs. Enormément de moyens de transport, hôtels d'excellente qualité et vraiment pas chers...
Entre l'aspect pratique et l'intérêt des sites, je mets la cuisine et le climat. Je ne vais pas écrire des lignes sur la cuisine qui fait tout simplement partie des tops mondiaux. Juste 2 bémols : les prix sont très élevés dans les restaus raffinés par rapport aux prix du pays. Et contrairement à la Chine, on peut tomber sur des restaus où on se moque des touristes. Résultat : un repas perdu alors que chaque repas peut se transformer en souvenir de rêve au Vietnam. Donc attention. Les guides touristiques écrits sont ici très utiles.
On est averti qu'au Vietnam le temps peu être gris. Et selon les sources, on peut reprendre espoir et se dire que finalement cette saison n'a pas l'air si mal. Pour ma part, je n'ai peut-être pas eu de chance mais alors j'en ai eu beaucoup dans les nombreux autres pays où je suis allé. Le ciel est souvent gris. Au nord, ça peut même être une attraction pour curieux de voir cette grisaille prête à vous tomber sur la tête. D'autre part, j'ai rarement vu une telle fraîcheur à une telle lattitude.
Les gens sont très sympas. Certains parlent anglais et il est très intéressant d'échanger avec les vietnamiens mais il faut savoir qu'ils ont un caractère trempé dans l'acier...
Les sites sont d'un intérêt limité. Le pays est surpeuplé et avide de développement. L'aspect traditionnel et religieux est quasi absent notamment par rapport à la Thaïlande. La nature est très très abîmée. Quand vous lisez les guides, vous vous dîtes que vous allez vous régaler à explorer les côtes ou qu'il y a des animaux à voir. C'est le problèmes des guides écrits qui ne comparent pas les pays entre eux. Ils vont utiliser les même adjectifs pour un pays moyen et pour les plus beaux pays. Oui, il y a des pays beaucoup mieux que d'autres ! En fait les côtes vietnamiennes ne sont pas terribles. Selon un guide les îles Cham sont un « époustouflant archipel ». Peut-être que si le Vietnam était le seul pays sur terre ce serait vrai mais il n'en est rien et il y a beaucoup mieux ailleurs. Les grottes de Phong Nha ouvertes au grand public sont d'un intérêt très limité et les autres sont vraiment très très chères d'accès et nécessitent souvent des réservations.
Mon but n'est pas de dénigrer le Vietnam mais d'éclairer les voyageurs car les guides ne le font pas. Je pense que le Vietnam est un pays idéal pour un retraité ou pour vivre quelques mois. Par contre si vous souhaitez découvrir ce qu'il y a de mieux en Asie du sud-est et que vous n'avez que quelques semaines par an, ne commencez pas par le Vietnam.
Le premier jour English translation pending
Nous sommes le xx xx xxxx, jour de votre déconfinement, vous êtes guéri ou n'avez jamais été en contact avec le virus couronné.
Qu'imaginez-vous faire en premier ? 😛
(Par simplicité, nous allons partir du principe que votre région est redevenue comme avant à défaut du monde.)
(Par simplicité, nous allons partir du principe que votre région est redevenue comme avant à défaut du monde.)
Voyage de deux mois en Amérique du Sud English translation pending
Bonjour à tous, aficionados du voyage !
Après avoir arpenté 90% de l'europe, je compte partir pour 2 mois en Amérique latine avec ma compagne en 2021.
Je commence à m'intéresser petit à petit à des lieux à visiter et j'aurai comme première ébauche le trajet suivant : Arrivée en Argentine, Buenos Aires passage par Santiago de Chile, remontée jusqu'en Bolivie pour la Paz, finir par le titicaca, Cuzco, Macchu Picchu et retour en France par Lima.
Plusieurs interrogations se posent : Est ce un itinéraire viable sur 2 mois ? 1 mois ? Sur quel tranche de budget devrais je partir hors billets d'avion sur la base de 2 personnes ? Des immanquables a voir sur cette feuille de route ? Des coins insolites ? Quelle période serait la plus propice ? Sur un précédent échange, on m'a dit d'éviter de janvier à mars. Est ce que mars avril mai serait une bonne période ?
On a tout les deux 28 ans, pas fada d'auberges de jeunesse mais on se fiche royalement de dormir dans du super hôtel Vip. On préfère largement le contact local !
Merci par avance pour vos retours !
Après avoir arpenté 90% de l'europe, je compte partir pour 2 mois en Amérique latine avec ma compagne en 2021.
Je commence à m'intéresser petit à petit à des lieux à visiter et j'aurai comme première ébauche le trajet suivant : Arrivée en Argentine, Buenos Aires passage par Santiago de Chile, remontée jusqu'en Bolivie pour la Paz, finir par le titicaca, Cuzco, Macchu Picchu et retour en France par Lima.
Plusieurs interrogations se posent : Est ce un itinéraire viable sur 2 mois ? 1 mois ? Sur quel tranche de budget devrais je partir hors billets d'avion sur la base de 2 personnes ? Des immanquables a voir sur cette feuille de route ? Des coins insolites ? Quelle période serait la plus propice ? Sur un précédent échange, on m'a dit d'éviter de janvier à mars. Est ce que mars avril mai serait une bonne période ?
On a tout les deux 28 ans, pas fada d'auberges de jeunesse mais on se fiche royalement de dormir dans du super hôtel Vip. On préfère largement le contact local !
Merci par avance pour vos retours !
La langue amazigh "Bérbère" English translation pending
on va discuter ici tout ce qui concerne la langue et la culture amazigh "Bérbère".
La langue amazigh ou tamazight c'est une langue parlée dans les payes nord africains :
Maroc, Algérie, Tunisie, Libye, Egypte, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mauritanie
La situation des femmes à Oman English translation pending
😠 Bonjour,
J'ai regardé cet après-midi un documentaire sur le Sultanat d'Oman et j'ai été fortement choquée !C'est un peu difficile à expliquer mais ce pays est profondément "masculinisé", les femmes existent à peine, ce sont de véritables esclaves de ces messieurs et celà n'a pas l'air de les déranger plus, ni les hommes mais surtout encore moins les femmes. Elles restent confinées dans des cases, habillées entièrement de noir, on voit juste les yeux et une partie du nez pour respirer et encore. Ces messieurs dansent, chantent, font la fête, discutent trafic de chèvres, de dromadaires, se baignent presque nus........ Sur les images , à part trois femmes en noir en train de cuisiner, je n'ai vu que des hommes sur un documentaire de 35'. Je n'arrive pas à y croire ! A notre époque, ce genre de vie me révulse et ne venez pas me dire que c'est leur religion qui font celà. Messieurs tous puissants !!!!!! C'est abject.
J'ai regardé cet après-midi un documentaire sur le Sultanat d'Oman et j'ai été fortement choquée !C'est un peu difficile à expliquer mais ce pays est profondément "masculinisé", les femmes existent à peine, ce sont de véritables esclaves de ces messieurs et celà n'a pas l'air de les déranger plus, ni les hommes mais surtout encore moins les femmes. Elles restent confinées dans des cases, habillées entièrement de noir, on voit juste les yeux et une partie du nez pour respirer et encore. Ces messieurs dansent, chantent, font la fête, discutent trafic de chèvres, de dromadaires, se baignent presque nus........ Sur les images , à part trois femmes en noir en train de cuisiner, je n'ai vu que des hommes sur un documentaire de 35'. Je n'arrive pas à y croire ! A notre époque, ce genre de vie me révulse et ne venez pas me dire que c'est leur religion qui font celà. Messieurs tous puissants !!!!!! C'est abject.
Les mythes touristiques English translation pending
Les Mythes Touristiques
Dans un carnet que je suis en train d'écrire sur un voyage récent au Mexique, nous sommes arrivés à une petite discussion sur les fameux groupes de musiciens Mexicains, les mariachis. Il existe un mythe selon lequel « mariachi » serait une déformation du mot Français « mariage », et que cela viendrait des fêtes tenues par les Français lors de leurs quelques années d’occupation du Mexique, dans les années 1860 et quelques. Je cite l’un des intervenants sur mon poste Mexicain :
« Les français organisaient de grandes fêtes aux mariages et avaient l'habitude d'inviter des musiciens…. Mariachi serait une déformation du mot mariage ..? »
Ce mythe a été réfuté car il a été prouvé que le terme « mariachi » était d’usage longtemps avant la peu glorieuse « Intervention » de la France au Mexique (c’était sous Napoléon III).
Plusieurs mythes semblables circulent. Certains semblent être propagés à l’intention des touristes, pour leur donner l’illusion de « mieux comprendre le pays », pour donner une profondeur supplémentaire à leurs voyages, pour alimenter leurs conversations avec les amis quand ils sont de retour. Car tout cela gonfle l’égo et donne envie de faire d’autres voyages, ça alimente le tourisme. D’où revenus, tiens donc, pour qui ?
Mais d’autres mythes existent qui ne sont peut-être pas créés à but lucratif.
Vous connaissez sans aucun doute de tels mythes et je vous propose de les partager. Et de donner les raisons pour lesquelles ces mythes existent.
Dans un carnet que je suis en train d'écrire sur un voyage récent au Mexique, nous sommes arrivés à une petite discussion sur les fameux groupes de musiciens Mexicains, les mariachis. Il existe un mythe selon lequel « mariachi » serait une déformation du mot Français « mariage », et que cela viendrait des fêtes tenues par les Français lors de leurs quelques années d’occupation du Mexique, dans les années 1860 et quelques. Je cite l’un des intervenants sur mon poste Mexicain :
« Les français organisaient de grandes fêtes aux mariages et avaient l'habitude d'inviter des musiciens…. Mariachi serait une déformation du mot mariage ..? »
Ce mythe a été réfuté car il a été prouvé que le terme « mariachi » était d’usage longtemps avant la peu glorieuse « Intervention » de la France au Mexique (c’était sous Napoléon III).
Plusieurs mythes semblables circulent. Certains semblent être propagés à l’intention des touristes, pour leur donner l’illusion de « mieux comprendre le pays », pour donner une profondeur supplémentaire à leurs voyages, pour alimenter leurs conversations avec les amis quand ils sont de retour. Car tout cela gonfle l’égo et donne envie de faire d’autres voyages, ça alimente le tourisme. D’où revenus, tiens donc, pour qui ?
Mais d’autres mythes existent qui ne sont peut-être pas créés à but lucratif.
Vous connaissez sans aucun doute de tels mythes et je vous propose de les partager. Et de donner les raisons pour lesquelles ces mythes existent.