About

ABOUT ME

   

I was born in Basel, Switzerland, on December 1^st, 1973; my mother is French and my father is Swiss. I grew up in Alsace, a beautiful region with a turbulent history in the north east of France. I have always felt at home in both countries and cultures, the French and the Swiss one. I studied molecular biology, but realized in time that I wasn’t made to work in a lab! So I turned myself towards ‘scientific communications’ and have spent my career so far working in the communications departments of two big corporations with a strong link to science: Novartis and Syngenta. I resigned from my last job at Syngenta, in Basel, in January 2015 to go on this trip. My mother and my brother with his little boy live in Basel. Personally, I have no children and had no boyfriend at the time this project was conceived! Since early 2015 I’ve been together with Raphaël who joined me on my trip at the end of May in Istanbul (he still had to work as I left in March!) Since Istanbul we habe been travelling together.

My biggest passion is everything related to the mountains – moutaineering, alpine climbing, rock climbing, skitouring, freeriding, ice-climbing, trekking… Actually, I can even sit in front of a beautiful mountain and simply watch it for hours and hours, despite being a very restless and not exactly a contemplative person!

Sport-wise I also like swimming, jogging, yoga and…cycling? Well, cycling doesn’t come naturally to my mind as a favorite sport and I don’t have much experience with big biking tours. So far my bicycle has mainly been a way to get around since I don’t have a car. But I love the pace and the freedom that a biking tour gives you – and I have strong legs!

And then, I love travelling! Exploring unknown places, discovering foreign people and cultures, constantly being surprised… My first day walking through Old Delhi, on my first trip to India as a pretty novice traveler, was among the most memorable experience of my life! In the meantime I have seen a lot of the world, but fortunately I haven’t lost any of my curiosity and my amazement capacity in a foreign country.

I would say that I’m a curious person quite generally. I’m interested in a lot of topics, in particular the ‘big’ questions related to the future of mankind, such as environmental challenges, population growth, food security, geopolitical developments, etc.

Despite some of my hobbies and my current big project which I undertake on my own, I’m a very social person who also enjoys doing ‘normal things’ with friends like eating out, going to a concert and having a crazy night out from time to time. So I’m counting on meeting not only a lot of friendly locals, but also nice fellow travellers with a similar mindset to keep me company on my big trip!

ABOUT THIS PROJECT
I have had the same life for the past 5 years. It was a good life, living in one of the richest and most beautiful countries in the world, with a good job, great hobbies, many friends… however I needed a break from that life and its daily routine – call it a mid-life crisis if you want!

So I’ve decided to quit my job and give myself roughly a 1 year break to do what I really like: travel the world! In order to make this a bit more purposeful (and complicated!), I will go travelling by bike and combine it with a journalistic project. Since I’ve worked in ‘agribusiness’ for the past 5 years and become quite passionate about topics such as sustainable agriculture and food security, I want to use – and expand – my knowledge on these topics by doing some ‘research on the ground.’ I’m planning to visit farmers in all the countries I will pass, and report about their lives – and at the same time try to better understand the challenges of feeding the world today, in countries as diverse as Italy, Turkey, India or Japan.

Click here to see my planned itinerary, roughly along the old Silk Road. By the way, I’m not planning to cycle all the time. I want to enjoy this trip as much as possible, so whenever the potential of suffering/ boredom/ danger is too big, I’ll put my bike in a train or a bus!

ABOUT THE ‘AGRICULTURAL REPORTING’ PART OF MY PROJECT
This is so to say the ‘project in the project’ and I think it needs more explanation. I’m sure you already wondered: Interviewing farmers, doing research about agriculture… SO WHAT?? Well, I did think about that carefully and would say that the following are my key objectives:

• Expand my personal knowledge of agriculture and food security
  • Test and challenge some principles that I’m quite convinced about (e.g. technology ca help farmers get out of poverty…)
  • Be open to new inputs and findings. Be ready to change my mind on some questions
  • HOW: By getting in touch with farmers and other people involved in agriculture and related topics; by reading and doing background research

• Use that knowledge to draw conclusions and come up with new insights
  • Focus on a few ‘themes’ that will emerge
  • HOW: By activating my brain (!); by testing my hypotheses

• Share that knowledge and those conclusions and insights with others
  • Target audiences:
    • People who know me well and are mainly interest in the ‘perso’ part of my reporting (the majority of my audience, I suspect!) – this may be an opportunity to get them interested in the topic of agriculture
    • Former colleagues, people I know or will meet from the world of agriculture – this may help them broaden their knowledge, in particular learn about practices from foreign countries
    • (Local) NGOs, media – they may become interested in my project and ask me to do some reporting for them
    • … my future employer??
  • HOW: By posting information on my blog/ Twitter/ Instagram, by writing articles (can be commissioned – let me know if you are interested!)