Storytime
-
[Story time] How I got a master’s degree through VAE (Validation of Acquired Experience)?
I studied computer science: a DUT (2-year university degree) obtained in 2007. The plan was to continue with a master’s degree, but I started a business and never went back to school. During almost 20 years of career, my education level never held me back. I worked in a new field (web marketing), most profiles were self-taught, and there were no academic courses. In 2025, I decided to switch careers to cybersecurity. I trained, passed a certification, and then started looking for a job. A job search is never a walk in the park, especially when changing careers. I received dozens of rejections for “lack of experience,” which was perfectly…
-
[story time] The meeting that changed my life
When I look in the rearview mirror, I realize that my professional career is full of “butterfly effect” moments where a stroke of luck, a proactive move, an unexpected encounter, or a seemingly insignificant event had a huge impact on my career and my life. Let me tell you about one of those moments. It’s January 2012, I’m 24 and working as a consultant at a SEO agency (search engine optimization in French, which consists of optimizing a website’s visibility on search engines like Google). I’m sent on-site with a client (meaning I’ll work directly at the client’s premises). I’m excited. The client runs one of the biggest French websites.…
-
[story time] How I Successfully Made a Career Change into Cybersecurity
In January 2025, I changed careers, and my lifestyle along with it. Let me tell you about it. A quick recap of the major steps in my career, to set the stage: On paper, I have what many would consider “a dream life”: I have a job I’m passionate about, that pays well, and that lets me travel anywhere, anytime. But gradually, my passion for this work began to fade. From around 2020, I was on autopilot, bored, and started questioning my professional future. There was no urgency, but I’d been doing SEO for 15 years—10 of them professionally—and I couldn’t see myself doing it for another 15. Besides, I…
-
Career story time: What my managers taught me
I’m currently volunteering to translate a book about the I Ching (I mentioned here). This ancient Chinese book believes that all life situations can be summarized into 64 hexagrams. Each hexagram has 6 lines, either yin or yang, and depending on their placement and nature, there are 6 personality types in a given situation. Many examples are set in the corporate world, which reminded me of my time as an employee, navigating my career in a fog and learning the political game at work. Let me share a few stories here. When I was in high school in France, I was very close to a girl whose father is the…
-
Our rental investment in Nice. We did it again!
A few years ago, we became owners of a two-bedroom apartment in La Rochelle, we told you about it here. Six years later, we’ve just picked up the keys to another apartment in Nice. We bought it two years earlier while we were on the other side of the world. Once again, this article is a feedback post, not advice. This time, we went through the same financial advisor, who offered us three off-plan apartments: one in Saint-Étienne, one in Reims, and one in Nice. The purchase prices and estimated rents were different. For various reasons, we chose Nice because it seemed like the most dynamic city and the rent-to-buy…
-
Custom leather goods: My hand-stitched saddle-stitch bag in Novonappa Gold
Today, I’ll tell you how I had my custom leather bag made by a Vietnamese leather craftsman. It’s entirely hand-stitched (saddle stitch) and made of Novonappa leather, lined with Sully goat leather. Story time This section could have been titled “how I got here” because I didn’t like leather to begin with. In 2020, I bought my first Hermès scarf and fell into a kind of obsession with this luxury brand. I learned that it’s one of the few luxury brands that still hand-stitches a small part of their bags (the others do it by machine). I read several books on Hermès and started familiarizing myself with the different leathers…
-
My bespoke Himalayan Crocodile Bag #bespoke
As everyone knows, the most expensive bags in the world are sold at auction, and the records are held by Hermès bags made from Himalayan crocodile skin. “Himalaya” is simply the name of the Hermès color for this particular combination of white, beige, and gray. It is meant to evoke snowy mountains, which is the only reason Himalaya comes into the equation here. Apparently, light colors and shade transitions are particularly difficult and time-consuming to create. Light colors are especially hard to achieve on crocodile, so getting this shade requires considerable skill from the tanner, as the natural color must be completely removed. The most expensive bags in the world…
-
[STORY TIME] Stranded on the Eurostar and hounded by a Europe 1 journalist
On November 20, 2014, I’m doing a round trip between Paris and London in a single day for work. Even though the schedule isn’t exactly thrilling, back then my trips outside France were few and far between, so I’m pretty excited. The workday goes well and it’s already time to head back. No time for a quick sightseeing stop, but I would have had a little time to wander around the city. Interesting, but frustrating not to stay longer. We take the 7:01 PM Eurostar, which is due to arrive at Paris’s Gare du Nord at 10:17 PM. The journey goes smoothly… until a double overhead line failure, an “extremely…
-
Rosalie: 2009 – 2022
Rosalie, my love, has just passed away. Thank you, my baby, for coming into our lives. For all the love you brought us, for all those moments of tenderness, purrs, laughter, fights with dad for some white sauce, or little thefts of carpaccio from my plate. I remember and will remember all those little moments that define your character. Like the time you rushed to join me running up the stairs in Bourville, just to be with me, while you were sleeping peacefully on the ground floor. You were a bit ashamed of that display of love but you know, it remains the best memory I have of us, and…
-
[story time] The day I dismasted on a Route du Rhum boat
October 4, 2014, 7:30 AM, I’m at Orly airport and about to experience an exceptional day! The employee I was at the time had been invited by a partner who sponsors a skipper who would be taking part in the famous Route du Rhum a month later. The plan: flight to Lorient, a day at sea, and a train ride back in the evening. There were seven of us in total: one of my colleagues came along, two people from the partner company inviting us, two people from one of their major clients, and the skipper! After breakfast upon arriving in Lorient, we met the skipper, who showed us his…
