Welcome to our travel and photography blog!

We are Sylvain and Mélanie 🙂 We are the two people behind this travel and photography blog. Passionate about both travel and photography for many years, we hope our stories and advice will make you even more excited to explore the world! Here, it’s very often Sylvain who writes (because he enjoys it) and Mélanie who takes care of everything else (and believe us, there is plenty to do!). Let’s go—we’ll leave you with a little introduction to each of us!

My name is Sylvain, I’m in my forties, and I’m passionate about travel. I don’t really remember exactly where this passion began, but even as a child, I remember spending hours looking at the world maps hanging on my bedroom wall or at the colorful globe my parents had bought for me. Seeing all those shapes and countries lit up in front of me felt magical. My dreams of traveling had already begun.

What followed could only be described as logical. Passionate about maps and discovery, I studied geography and geology before completing a master’s degree in natural risk management. Why am I telling you all this? Throughout my studies, I remember my university teachers showing us photos of magical places to illustrate their courses: “This is a photo I took last year of a dune in Namibia; here, you can see…”, “Ah! Here is a photo of a dyke I photographed six months ago in Iceland.” In short, even back then, my desire to travel kept growing. Naturally, I started planning my first trips. At 21, I traveled to Norway with a friend, and then to the island of Martinique with my wife.

Around that time, in 2006, I started collecting sand, a hobby known as arenophilia. Since then, I have collected sand and exchanged samples with people from all over the world. In 2015, I completed my goal of collecting sand from every country in the world (196).

I left France in 2009 to finish my studies in New Caledonia. I spent most of 2010 traveling. I went back to Norway for a second time and then spent a month hiking in the Himalayas in Nepal. In 2011, I decided to move to Mayotte, in the Indian Ocean, for work. I stayed there for two years, while also managing to travel to the Comoros and Madagascar.

Unfortunately, life caught up with me a little, especially work, and I couldn’t travel as much as I would have liked. But the desire was still there. At the end of 2012, after a year of planning, I decided to leave my job with my wife and travel through Southeast Asia for a year. This journey through Asia will stay with me forever: so many wonderful encounters, beautiful landscapes, and culinary, cultural and human discoveries.

Returning to France at the end of 2013 was difficult for me, and I found it hard to imagine settling there permanently. I moved abroad again for two years, back to the island of Mayotte, once again for work. This time, I also had the opportunity to discover Réunion Island, return to Madagascar several times, and visit the African continent for the first time, with two trips: Mozambique and Tanzania, including a photo safari.

I left Mayotte for good in 2015 to move to French Polynesia, where we lived for several years. That was another incredible adventure, allowing us to discover the tropical islands of French Polynesia, as well as Easter Island and New Zealand. We now live in Guadeloupe with our two children.

Hey, I’m Melanie, also in my forties!

Where should I start? To tell you the truth, my passion for travel began in Martinique with Sylvain. Despite going on several school trips, I didn’t really understand before then why people would spend so much money on something immaterial, on memories rather than objects… But when I came back from that trip, something clicked, and I truly started to enjoy traveling!

That said, I had always traveled around France with my parents, especially on camping trips from place to place! Setting up camp, unpacking the tent and building huts with my cousins had always been exciting to me!

What I love about traveling, beyond discovering new landscapes, is meeting people. Our two stays in Mayotte will always hold a special place in my heart. Beyond the wonderful lagoon, what I remember most are the long hours spent talking with Mahorais during driving lessons (oh yes, I forgot to tell you—I was a driving instructor!). On the island, there were no taboos, and I learned so much from them. It was a real exchange!

My desire to discover new cultures was confirmed when I traveled to Southeast Asia. My best memories from that year in this part of the world are the encounters with people, the glances we exchanged that said so much…

And what about today?

First of all, I’m the mother of little Louis, who is just as chatty as his father… and that is already a full-time job! Professionally, I’m a little lost—and yes, that’s me: I don’t like monotony, and I get bored quickly!

After studying business, then working in activities and recreation, I joined my parents in the driving school world (yes, always that same need for interaction). That job in Mayotte was exciting. Here in Tahiti, I’m no longer drawn to it at all. So I decided to turn toward a profession that seems useful everywhere: accounting. I’ve always heard that you can find work anywhere with it. So in 2017, I started studying again for a bachelor’s degree, and I must admit, the challenge is not easy.

In 2017, together with Sylvain, we decided to start this travel and photography blog to share our two shared passions. I must admit that combining studies with running this blog is not always easy. Because yes, here, it is mainly Sylvain who writes (because he enjoys it). Besides that, I’m fully involved in everything else. At the beginning of the blog, things were simple to manage, but as it has become better known, it now takes much more time. I take care of all the other aspects: technical management, layout, photo editing, SEO support, social media, partnerships, and more. Basically, it is almost a full-time job now!

Come on, enough talking. I’ll let Sylvain take over again and tell you more about the content of our blog!

Melanie

I must admit that I had a hard time getting started. I spent years telling myself to stop putting it off and just get on with it. I had already started blogging during my trip to Southeast Asia, but only for my family and friends. Then time passed, and I still didn’t really get started…

It was finally during a lovely encounter with a Polish blogger (!) during her stay here on the islands that something clicked. We had some wonderful conversations, and then, “click!” I got started. And now here I am, throwing myself body and soul into this blog. I must admit, it isn’t a simple task, because I’m starting from scratch, from nothing, really. Blogging became very popular around 2017, and more or less everyone seemed to keep a blog when traveling or going on a world tour.

Well, I’m gradually finding my feet now, and I’m starting to get the hang of writing, sharing and doing all the research. From the beginning, I deliberately wanted to talk about the two passions that make me feel alive: travel and photography. For me, they are inseparable.

That is why I consider this blog to be both a travel and a photography blog. In any case, I enjoy writing about both topics. Here, you will find articles on the destinations I have been lucky enough to explore and share, as well as articles related to photography. Since I was living in French Polynesia when I started writing this blog, there are many more articles on French Polynesia than on other destinations. However, I also write about my travels over the years in Africa, Mayotte and Southeast Asia.

For a while, I also made it my goal to find cheap airline tickets and kept a dedicated page up to date with the best fares I could find. That project is now behind us, but it was part of the blog’s early travel-resource section.

Please note that some articles on our blog contain affiliate links, which means we may earn a small commission if you book a hotel room or plane ticket through these links. Of course, you don’t pay more if you use them. But if you do, you help us continue running this blog. That is how we are able to keep producing free and, above all, independent content, which is extremely important to us.

If you would like to know more about me, my thoughts and ideas in 2019, come and read my article on my life as a blogger in 2019. Maybe it will evolve, who knows?

Before we meet somewhere along the road, we wish you all the best and hope you enjoy discovering the articles on our blog, which keeps growing day after day. To follow the evolution of this blog and not miss anything, I invite you to subscribe to our newsletter so you can receive all the latest blog articles! Feel free to follow us on social media too.

See you soon,

Sylvain & Mélanie