“The Greatest Traveler is not the one who went ten times around the world, but the one who went once around himself.”
“Le plus grand Voyageur n’est pas celui qui a fait dix fois le tour du monde, mais celui qui a fait une seule fois le tour de lui-même”.
Ghandi – my Hero
All posts by Vincent
Live your Passion
“Passion is the genesis of genius.”
Galileo
Happiness lies within
“The greatest blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach. A wise man is content with his lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what he has not”
Seneca, born in Hispania in 4 BC.
The End!
This is it! The Beautiful World Tour is over!
Coming back was as intense as the whole year around the world to fulfill our family dreams. We saw our good friends. Kids met with their friends too. We saw our close family members. We reconnected with the “normal life”, getting ready to get back to work and school, which is actually a real joy. In fact, that year vanished in a finger snap!
On my (crazy) side, I could also fulfill the last two dreams I had on my list for this very special year: becoming an airplane pilot and a sky diver: check (I promise I will compensate those carbon emissions too;-)!
Here is the last photo album of our life journey!
And the last video, a pure adrenaline shot, looking at home from above and at 200 km/h! A great way to finish this very emotional journey with an experience to keep me young at heart: #forever20andtrippin’!
Tomorrow, we will all start our new life. The Corporate life for me (a big thank to my company for letting me go for a year), a new school for kids, and Naturespath consultations for Delphine… with many friends and family members around us.
One dream finishes with so many good memories. Another one starts.
#LifeIsBeautiful!
Happiness is like a butterfly
“Happiness is like a butterfly; the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder”
Henry David Thoreau, born in 1817 in Massachusetts.
Carbon Positive World Tour
One of the goal of the Beautiful World Tour was to visit the World without leaving a trace.
To do so, we had to offset our Global Carbon footprint, calculating our emissions in each region, considering transportation, accommodation, etc… which accounted for a total of 61.45 tons, then supporting Carbon emission compensation and future emission prevention projects in each of the region we crossed.
We decided to compensate 2.5x times our total emissions because westerners like have a “debt” compared to the emerging countries we visited, so this calculation accounts for their right to support their growth through emissions on their side.
We also decided to compensate the Carbon emissions of the family for the next 5 years to reach the COP21 goals, after considering the reduction we can already achieve by changing our lifestyle a bit, our consumption patterns, and using energy saving and production technologies.
Here are all the official certificates from the projects we carefully selected, showing this is not bullshit Green-washing, even if some people might challenge the actual impact of such personal initiative…
Of course, if we are the only one doing this, it has no impact, but anyone can now easily compensate its emissions of travelling, starting with airplane flights compensation which generally cost 2-3% of tickets costs.
More and more airlines and travelling sites provide this Carbon compensation option in the check-out when you purchase online, so just click on it, pay attention to the Carbon compensation measures they propose (as some really are borderline): this is already a great first step that will fuel many sustainability initiatives around the world, and raise attention on the issue.
Then each of us can also calculate its own yearly emissions, and start shaping a simple action plan: driving slower and smoother, using more public transportation, cycling to work, buying energy efficient technology, eating local seasonal food and less meat, recycling as much as you can, etc… It’s not that complicated, and the education of people around you is as important as the reduction itself.
As St Exupery said:
“We don’t inherit planet Earth from our parents, we borrow it from our kids“.
Each small individual action will have an important cumulative effect, so it is important that each of us start this journey.
For the French, it starts here:
http://www.coachcarbone.org/
For the others, it could start here:
http://www.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx
So here are the almost 200 tons of Carbon we compensated through many different initiatives!
Carbon Emission Offsetting in Costa Rica for our next 5 years emissions delta (vs. COP21 goals, 10 years ahead;-) = 40 tons of CO2
(the trees that the kids prepared are now planted)!
Carbon sequestration = Planting trees
Carbon Emission Offsetting in Latin America = 25 tons of CO2
Americas Environmental Actions
Carbon Emission Offsetting in Asia-Pacific zone = 100 tons of CO2
Offsetting our Australasia Carbon emissions
Carbon Emission Offsetting in Africa (that we will visit later) = 25 tons CO2
Now your turn to do it;-)
Wisdom of Happiness
3 great quotes about Happiness from the Greek philosophers:
“The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less”
Socrates, lived in 450 BC.
“The man who makes everything that leads to happiness depends upon himself, and not upon other men, has adopted the very best plan for living happily”
Plato, lived in 4th century BC.
“Happiness depends upon ourselves”
Aristotle, lived in 300 BC.
Back home – we made it!
This is it!
One year and 5 days later, we are back to our home sweet home in Carry-le-Rouet after a once in a lifetime family adventure around the World.
When we flew over Marseille, the whole family got quite emotional as we were a few minutes away from landing. After seeing so much beautiful sceneries around the world, it was striking to recognize that we actually live in a beautiful part of the planet!
Our little house did not change much, even if the garden did grow a lot (and died in some areas;-), but it feels very special to find our “house of love” intact and filled with those good memories. It’s so weird to drop our 130 kilos of luggage once for all!
First thing the kids did: run down the street to meet their friends!
Here are some funny stats for the Beautiful World Tour:
- 370 days around the world
- 15 countries and islands visited
- 44000 kms by plane
- 15000 kms by car & campervan (2 cars and 1 campervan broken)
- 2000 nautical miles by boat
- 1 broken campervan & 1 car accident (minor)
- 130 kilos of luggages that made it back (minus 3 boards broken on the way;-)
- 80 days of class for the kids
- 100+ books read
- 150+ different animals seen (as counted by Ulysses)
- 10 hours of video produced & 10000 pictures taken
- and of course countless memories!
We had this dream 2 years ago, and the map was still there on the wall to remember us the initial idea, the plan, and what we finally achieved (not exactly the plan like always;-)
Now, we are back with many unforgettable memories, new dreams for the future, and great family bonding forever!
There will probably be a few more posts to digest and reflect on the experience. Stay tuned.
We did it, and we are so happy to be back home!
The Rosier – Stuhlen family
Bye Bye Lisbon!
Well, this is the end of our one month long dream stay in Portugal.
A big thank you to all our friends who have been offering us shelter, food and a lot of joy during those weeks that were a great way to land softly from our journey around the World!
We were lucky to be able to visit some of the most beautiful places in and around Lisbon, including amazing Sintra, one of the most mystical places on earth.
I was also lucky to get wind and decent waves almost everyday, allowing me to complete this trip with my favorite sport in one of my favorite spots: windsurfing in Guincho!
So here are a few pictures of beautiful Lisbon, a European capital that is proposing one of the best Lifestyle / Cultural / Natural combo!
I wish we could live here one day…
And here is the complete Portugal Photo Album as usual;-)
Now off to our last destination: home!
Portugal & Friends
What a wonderful time!
It has been almost 3 weeks since we landed in Portugal. We stayed at 2 great friends houses in the area of Cascais & Sintra, one of the most beautiful parts of Portugal, with breathtaking sceneries, vibrant culture, and unique micro-climate. It was great to see our many friends there and get back to normal life with shopping, dining and partying;-)
Kids enjoyed a lot playing again with kids their age, as they did not meet that many kids during the trip!
We did a few hikes in the region and were struck with the beauty of this piece of land at the western tip of Europe. You will see in the below photo gallery some views of Sintra forest and La Serra mountains, as well as some of the mythical beaches, like Praia da Guincho the extreme water sports arena (with wind and waves every day), and Praia da Ursa that is known for being one of the most beautiful beach in the world, and it’s probably true!
We are now a few days from getting back to France, and honestly, we are all soooo excited to find our sweet home, and end our one year nomad life… That’s the great thing with such a World Tour I guess: you are happy when it starts, and happy when it ends!
Landing back home in Carry-le-Rouet expected on the 15th of August!
Soon back….
BEAUTIFUL WORLD TOUR 