Today, I wanted to share with you a story that really touched me. Few days ago, Emeline, a french young girl, contacted me through the blog. We started to talk about my project and travelling in general. Emelyne then told me that her dream was to travel the world with her boyfriend.

Travelling should be open to anyone, shouldn’t it ? To use a wheelchair can limit some of your activities, but will never kill a travelling spirit ! I’m really proud of these two people from Montpellier (France). They are really brave and have a real challenge to face. So please GO FOR IT ! Start to build a sponsorship report, contact companies…but never give your project up !

Emeline also told me about this interesting website called Envie d’Agir which helps young people projects. I’m loving their Emelyne’s project and i definitelly think they should contact such organizations I promise I will help you soon in building your dream.

Here is an interview of Emeline that we recorded through Seesmic. Here is the video interview . I apologize, I really did not have the time these days to build an english version for it, so the interview will be only available in french…

Présentes toi un petit peu ! Quel a été ton parcours et surtout parles moi du projet de toi et ton copain ?

emeline henot pour romain 1

15 days ago, I had the opportunity to go to Marseille to meet a sponsor of my journey, which is called NeoMarco. It was then a pleasure to shot some short videos and to interview them. Enjoy (Apologize, the interview has not yet english subtitles).

The International School of Business IDRAC Lyon (I was graduated in 2007) joined the project, it’s now official ! Few days ago, I was really happy to meet Denis Broliquier, who is the Director of Studies , and also Lyon’s second district mayor. We had a very nice talk which led to a interesting partnership : all along the trip, I will have to visit some universities that are linked to the IDRAC network, to meet the students already there. My goal is then to shot movies for the school about the way IDRAC students live, the way they adapt themselves to the country. The videos will then be useful for the school for promote its international values. Denis Broliquier tells you a bit more about IDRAC through the sponsors page. Many thanks to IDRAC for their support.

Let’s talk now a bit about NeoMarco, which is also a new sponsor for Romain World Tour. NeoMarco is  cool website on which you can share your discoveries through 3 main topics : authentic, ethical and out of the ordinary. Then, if you like to “feel the travel” through souvenirs (just like me) you might find some amazing ones there ! Many thanks to Martine Sousse, co-founder of the website for her time and her wonderful vision of what’s really mean travelling, and to all the team for their warm welcome in Marseille few days ago ! A video interview is coming soon…

One adviced this movie to me. Then once again. Finally, one told me that I just can’t leave without having seen it. Time after time, this movie became a real reference for me. I must confess, I had it for a long time on my laptop’s desktop, but I just did not have the time to watch it. Finally another sleeplesss night helped me to do so. And I really felt so good about this movie, it changed my way to see the travel and even if it’s quite a hard task to describe all the feelings I got, I really enjoy what the movie wanted to “say”. What did you say ? You never saw it ? Well, that’s a shame but I’m going to help you… Follow this link. You can also buy it here. The amazing soundtrack can be listened here.

Here are some chosen extracts.

“…Hate think of a wild man like you in a cage. Tramping is too easy with all this money you paid me. My days were more exciting When i was penniless. I’ve decided I’m going to live this life for some time to come. The freedom and simple beauty is just too good to pass up…”

“All that the see has to give is this kind of gust, and sometimes a feeling of power. It’s true that I don’t know much about the see but that’s the way it’s here and I also know that in your life, the most important thing is not only to be strong but to feel strong and to experience at least once in your life the fight against the blind and deaf nature, without nothing to help you except your hands and head.”

“Rather than love, celebrity, faith, money, rather than justice, give me the truth”

Since i’ve started this project, I’m always looking for cheap communication solutions to keep in touch with my friends and family during the long journey.

Of course, I’m a real Skype user, and it allows you to subscribe to an World illimited package for 10,29 € All taxes included per month. Also, Skype is well-known for the ability to talk for free from skype-to-skype accounts.It’s also interesting to notice that it has a powerful SMS service.

How could we survive without (at least) MSN Messenger, Facebook and Google Talk ?

Finally, I recently discovered a a very cool iPhone application called BiteSMS and which allows (like the Skype SMS offer to send short messages quite cheap. SMS are directly sent from a Wifi connection or even a 3G one (I’m thinking about evaluating some costs in a coming post).I tried it and everything worked well. I got 550 credits (which means 550 SMS from France to France) for 30 €. Don’t forget that you have 1 year to use them. But it’s still quite enought, isn’t it ?

One really have to take care of not using to often mobile phones to avoid scary bills..However, some services such as BiteSMS are cool. I hope I won’t have to have such a bad experience..