Inspiration

My Parents:

Unfortunately they are not there anymore to share all these emotions, as I lost my Mother in 2010 and my Father in 2012. But it is an understatement to say that they are the inspiration for everything I do. They inspired to me the will to think beyond boundaries, and travel beyond borders….

My Wife:

This will sound obvious, but she played such a key role…. I cannot forget to mention how much a trustful and supportive partner is important to achieve one’s goals. So here is she : Stéphanie…. Her way of considering life, accepting courageously the challenges of reality, while keeping on pulling poetry and beauty out of the routine, and this, each single day, helped me for everything I did for more than 20 years. She is my angel of luck, that is it ! So, I just want to give the best of myself in this project, like an homage to all what she did so far. No need to say more: just THANK YOU MY LOVE.

And her Family:

Marie-Odile & Gilles, my Wife’s Mother and Father, are honest and straight,  they value the hard-work, French local traditions of Les Vosges, and craftsmanship. Their genealogical tree have its roots in Les Vosges down to 14th Century! What a legacy! They became my new parents as I lost mine 6 and 4 years ago. Big hugs to them! Annabelle & Julien, my sister and brother in law, are some other kind of daily life warriors. Respect!

Michel C.

When humility meets exemplarity…. this is how I would introduce Michel. Now retired, he used to be a postman. Do you have an image in mind ? If not…, let me help you. Waken up every day to ride a bike… Whatever the weather looks like, he rode his bike. So far, it is standard, right ? Where things are getting extraordinary, is that Michel uses his free-time, to cycle the world and meet people on his route. He rode his modest bike through Europe, Africa, Asia…. Thousands of miles ! I wrote modest bike, because Michel does not rely on costly technique, just on his will to go further, day after day… If he has to stop,… he just restarts to ride 100 m before his last stop, in order to make sure that he did the whole route, that he has not « stolen » a single meter … He goes slowly, he says…, not because he cannot ride faster, just because he does want to catch the moments, to experience all the marvels and sights of the countries he is cycling, and meet people who are living there. Very, very inspiring… while staying simple. MERCI MONSIEUR for all your recommendations and shared, wise experience.

Michel and me in his garage :

On the left “a modest bike for a huge soul “, Michel and his everlasting bike:

ALL the others:

A BIG THANK YOU to all the people I met, who helped me, inspired me, lead to put myself into question, helped me to grow:

The list is so huge that I have to apologize in advance toward all the people I forgot to mention.

Particular thanks to:

All my colleagues from AIRBUS who are a permanent source of motivation to me.

Jérôme C. who accepted to let me fly so far from my office for a few weeks….

All my Friends in France (57, 54, 88, 13, 75…), Germany (our home country for a few years now), South Korea (so many fantastic memories and friends there), Japan (I am just dreaming of coming back to meet again all of you), Hong-Kong, US, Singapore, England, Ireland, Mongolia, Ukraine, Australia, Canada, New Zealand for sure…

Philippe F., who shared with me so many dreams at the Gym when we were young, his sister Christine who is a sister to me; all my childhood friends and former classmates who are always so close to my heart; Phil KS who helped me to take some important decisions;  Laurent B. who pushed me to run my 1st half-marathon some 15 years ago; Aurélia V. the fastest and long-lasting running lady I ever met, Hee-Il who has unfortunately to follow her while she is running… ; Jay K. one of the kindest guy I met in Seoul; Christophe C. & Annika, The Queen of Korean nights; Nicolas D.; the team of the best restaurant in Seoul Itaewon, La Planque; Zvonimir G. and his son Dinko, who impressed me in Mongolia; all the team from S2S; Lichu S., an amazing lady who will maybe break a world record of the biggest amount of marathons ran over the world in a lifetime, and so many more….

A special thought to Raph B., my Friend and running clone for more than 15 years…