Tag / travel

by YannigRoth

I cycled through France & Spain for 1 month, here are my 10 preferred, cycling-friendly places to stay

Departure day in Paris, on June 15th

Bikepacking is one of the latest trends in cycling-land, like gravel racing or the development of the e-bike. Interestingly, these various trends all play towards individuals’ desire for more freedom and discovery, away from performance and technicality.

As I was going through a phase of professional transition, a break in which some thinking time was very welcome, I took the opportunity to embark on a self-organized 2800km #TourdeFranceSolo in 21 stages, spread out over a duration of 1 month.

I set out to a journey that combined visiting family & friends, riding some of this year’s Tour de France stages, and simply testing myself on places I always dreamed to ride in, like the Alpe d’Huez or Mont Ventoux climbs.

Here is a really home-made video of my journey, which I purposefully wanted to keep on paper, and below I’m sharing 10 great places I discovered along the way. I found them through a combination of Les Collectionneurs, Airbnb & Google Maps-based hotel or Bed & Breakfast search. I can reassure you that all of them were very cycling-friendly, which was obviously important for me!

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by YannigRoth

J’ai testé (et recommande) les adresses toulousaines Les Collectionneurs

Connaissez-vous Les Collectionneurs (anciennement Châteaux & Hôtels Collection) ? Il s’agit d’un regroupement d’hôteliers et de restaurateurs indépendants, réunis dans un programme qui a pour ambition de devenir “la référence pour les voyageurs du monde de l’hôtellerie de charme et de la restauration gourmande“.

Je vous propose ici un avis personnel, subjectif (et non-rémunéré) sur les 4 adresses toulousaines du programme – 2 restaurants et 2 hôtels – que j’ai eu la chance de pouvoir tester (cela peut avoir du bon de voyager pour le travail). J’ai inclus aussi un petit bonus, non-loin de Carcassonne, idéal pour un week-end extra-toulousain !

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by YannigRoth

My favorite holiday reads from Cambodia

Koh Rong Samloen ReadingI originally started this blog to share thoughts, reads and conferences that I found worthwhile writting about. It turns out that my last book review dates almost 2 years back, so it’s time to write about books again! Just came back from 2 weeks of really relaxing holidays in Cambodia, a beautifull country that has much more to offer than the magnificient temples of Angkor.

I have spent quite some time reading – as I do under that palm tree on the picture – and I ended up wanting to write a blog post about 4 of the books I have enjoyed most during our holidays, 2 of which are about Cambodia’s tumultuous history. Continue reading →

by YannigRoth

Nature Retreat in Brittany: Airbnb’s Video Of Our Home #EarthDay2016 #ViensEnBretagne

Excerpt from Airbnb's short video (click to watch)

Meet Jörg, Hélène and our dog Nelson (excerpt from Airbnb’s video)

For #EarthDay2016, Airbnb France published this nice little video of the place my brother Maël and I grew up, in the heart of Brittany. The company chose to feature our house because my mom & step dad are not only successful Airbnb hosts, but also and foremost because they run the place in an environmentally friendly & respectful way. It’s in French, but you don’t need to understand the captions to see just how beautiful it is there.  Continue reading →

by YannigRoth

This Guy Travelled Around The World To Meet Creative Community Members

Image via vimeo.com

Meet Matias Planas, a graphic designer and photographer from Argentina who also happens to be a member of the jovoto crowdsourcing platform. He just came back from a round-the-world trip where he met a lot of other creatives from the same community (I think this is awesome!). As Matias basically did in real life what I a have been doing for years for my PhD – which is to find out why creatives from across the world participate in crowdsourcing projects – I got in touch and asked him a couple of questions. Continue reading →

by YannigRoth

A Perfect Map Of The World Will Never Exist

I started reading the book on my way back from Singapore. A live map showed us where we were in real time

I started reading the book on my way back from Singapore. A map showed us where we were in real time (which is not anecdotal, as I found out after finishing its last chapter about today’s usage of maps)

I love maps, I could stand hours in front one, whether it represents my city or the entire world; whether it hangs on a wall or it twist at my fingertips on my tablet. It is quite a creative and cheap way to travel! I just finished a fascinating book: A History of the World in 12 Maps, written by a British professor, Jerry Brotton. He explains how humans have always been driven to represent the world around them, and how each of these representations is shaped by cultural, political or commercial interests. Google Earth is no exception.

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