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A Summer in Paris [August 2025]
Another summer where I’m cat-sitting. This time, it’s for friends. Three cats in total. It’s surely my (late) Rosalie who sent them my way. I was looking at Rosalie’s photo, thinking how much I missed her; that being sedentary was useless if you don’t have a cat, etc., when we were asked to take care of the cats during the August holidays. In Paris / Île-de-France. Since JB can work remotely unlimited and I have no geographical constraints, we happily accept. Lille is only a 1h30 train ride from Paris, but it’s quite a hassle to do a round trip in one day when we have quite a few museums…
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[review] Gastronomic restaurant Les Chemins in Guainville (chef Géraud Dupuis)
To celebrate our birthdays, JB booked a gastronomic restaurant an hour from Paris. Note: this article is NOT sponsored, we booked ourselves and paid out of our own pockets. The restaurant is called Les Chemins and is located in the Domaine de Primard, a hotel that is part of Relais & Châteaux. Here’s the hotel. There’s a large outdoor pool, but since we weren’t hotel guests, we didn’t dare go check it out. And here’s the restaurant. JB tells me there’s a “regular” section and a gastronomic section. There’s a single menu. The only choice is between a 5-course or 7-course menu. 7 courses = an extra starter and cheese.…
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[Reflection] #23: Karma & Destiny
Today I read an article about karma and I’m not sure if I’ve told you about it. It’s very difficult to help people, because most of the time they don’t need help but just validation. Many people contact us for advice on how to become digital nomads and when we ask a simple practical question, we annoy them because we don’t cover them with “you’ll make it” like dream sellers. I’ve already helped someone much more than necessary and I got sick for several weeks. Because I shortened their karmic trials and had to pay their karma in their place. Only help those who truly ask for your help and…
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[review] Exhibition: Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry at the Château de Chantilly
Apparently, it would be easier to meet the Pope or the President of the United States in person than to see the manuscript Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry, carefully kept at the Musée Condé in Chantilly. Even researchers struggle to access this treasure. But we are very lucky because right now an exceptional exhibition is being held dedicated to Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry. This presentation, running until October 5, 2025, is a major event in the world of medieval art. A truly exceptional manuscript finally unveiled Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry represents one of the absolute masterpieces of medieval illumination.…
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The Best Facials & Spas in Paris [2025]
When I had a permanent job in Paris, I was so stressed and tired on weekends that I had to get a massage/pampering every week to relax a bit. And despite myself, I got to try quite a few spas and beauty institutes, plus the gifts people gave me, knowing my habit. I’m going to give you my non-exhaustive list of spas I really loved. Véronique Meissonnier I opted for the bespoke facial at Véronique Meissonier. A massage therapist and physiotherapist by training, she’s part of the French Facialists Club. She was trained by the master of Kobido (an ancient Japanese massage technique). Her one-hour bespoke facial is divine! She…
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Samsonite suitcase: disastrous after-sales service
In October 2019, I purchased a Samsonite suitcase. Since I was traveling a lot at the time, I was looking for a sturdy, reliable suitcase with a long warranty in case of problems. I really liked this suitcase, especially the quality of its wheels, which were much better than those of my previous travel companions. Gradually, I noticed the zipper starting to wear out until early 2025, when it became really problematic. I don’t know much about it, but in my mind, it must be a very common problem that should be fixable. I contacted Samsonite’s customer service hoping the repair would be covered by the warranty (in principle, 10…
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[Reflection] #21: What Can the 0.1% Teach Us?
Finally, the time has come! Smart, rich, successful influencers, graduates of elite schools, after a top career, with plenty of dollars in their bank accounts… are starting to spend their free time on social media to give back. I follow the following Instagrammers: The problem with influencers who rely solely on partnerships is that they constantly censor themselves, for fear of losing a sponsor or offending their audience. They are forced to follow trends and end up all saying the same thing, respecting political correctness. So if you must follow someone, prefer those who have other sources of income, who aren’t afraid to lose followers. Those who repeat ten times…
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How to Order on Taobao with CSSBuy (to France, Europe): My Review and Experience 2025
Today, I’m going to show you how to buy on Taobao using a Taobao agent, a middleman who receives Taobao packages and reships them to you anywhere in the world (France, Europe, etc.). The service I use is called CSSBuy, and you can use my affiliate link to sign up, which might get you some coupons. Why Taobao? Cssbuy CSSBuy is a Taobao agent, meaning they’ll receive Taobao packages for you in China and then send them anywhere in the world, to your home in France or elsewhere. If you have multiple packages, they can consolidate them into one. Packages are stored free of charge in their Chinese warehouse for…
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How to order from Japanese sites and get delivery to the UK with Shipito?
If, like me, you drool over ingenious Japanese products, beautiful Japanese books, or cosmetics websites, telling yourself “one day, I’ll go to Japan,” know that you can get them without going to Japan. There are solutions! Why buy Japanese products? How to get delivery to the UK? You can simply use a package forwarding service like Shipito. These services give you a postal address in Japan, and they take care of forwarding your parcels to the UK. The good news is that they can even consolidate multiple parcels!! that way you’ll receive them all at once, and they’ll remove unnecessary packaging that serves no purpose. So you pay: Unfortunately, the…
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My Current Favorites – [July 2025] – Japanese Stationery, Beads, Lipstick effect
Last month, I told you I brought back a lot of Vietnamese books. They are books about the Yi King, a very challenging subject, so I had to take out all the stationery I bought in Japan to highlight and annotate my books. In Japan, they are so passionate about stationery that there is a lot of innovation and even a stationery fair that takes place in several major cities in Japan in June/July. They regularly make rankings. In Japan, they love rankings and have rankings for everything. For cosmetics, for example, there is the cosmeranking, which is very famous; that allowed me to buy without thinking, given the immense…
