THE CHALLENGE
Kicking solo between Nantes(Fr) and Budapest(Hu) for a charity! More than hundreds of thousands kicks on routes and trails for the benefit of Cafe Sauvage, a public-spirited, participatory, eco-friendly and solidarity-based place. My main fuel: hopefully good legs and encouragments :)
- A light-weighted gear pack, a self-supported trip: wild camping mostly (a few nights in big cities) and a sustainable solar source of energy for the electronics and for sharing with you the adventure, respectfully of the project values (see the Concept & values).
- I’m financing most of the challenge (if gear is offered or discounted to me, I’m notifying it : see the moral questioning on page Gear). At the end, the whole sum of your donations will be redistributed to Cafe Sauvage!
- I’ll ride along EuroVelo Route 6, through France, Switerland, Germany, Austria, Slovakia and Hungary.
- If and after I’ve completed the foolish task, I’ll head back home by train (Budapest, Vienna, Stuttgart, Paris, Caen).
The whole Eurovelo 6 itinerary, from the Atlantic to the Black Sea:
THE CHOSEN ASSOCIATION: CAFE SAUVAGE
What it is:
Cafe Sauvage is an associative place of welcome and meeting held by volunteers in Caen (Normandy), since december 2014. It’s a social place of sharing, emulsion and creativity, which promotes ecological values and simple living.
It offers weekly activities: workshops, discussions and philosophical readings, outgoings, musical and cultural evenings, shared meals. It encourages individual initiatives: anyone can propose a specific idea, an action, a topic of gathering. It does not impose fixed fee so that the consumer can choose the price of what he drinks, eats or takes and is prompted to think about the act and the meaning of consumption. Thus it is a living place that lives from the very free participation of each, with an open library and a free seeds supply! Lastly, it’s a cafe which acts hand in hand with a network of local producers, and with other local associations involved against food wasting.
Its associative goals are:
- to search, invent, experiment sustainable solutions, ecological ideas for a simple daily life and habitat.
- to put human intelligence and progress into the service of ecology for a better world
- to concile ecology, economy and common life so that everyone can have a confortable living
- to share and communicate about those values in any way, by favoring proximity and human scaled actions, and respecting the environment
- to set up plural testing grounds, grounds of welcome and spare time for everyone, of initiatives, that could in the same time finance the association activities
Why I’ve chosen to ride for them:
Because I’m convinced that it is precisely that type of local and solidarity-based initiatives that have effective impacts. It is by experimenting locally and at small scales, by choosing to put priority on different relationships to things, use, exchange and people, that our ways of commonly living into the world will be remodeled, little by little.
No sudden and global revolution, as we are often lead to think that it would be the sole way of “changing things”. Rather a myriad of individual life styles, small collectives, a network of solidarities, that end up changing things we were worrying about, things were were fighting for, without even the time to notice the metamorphosis. The global change, as we call it for an easy understanding and consensus, comes from local subjects that have everything but a global plan: they have convictions on how to live here, now, well (not better). It’s enough. But it requires a responsibility, a way of living that is examined and enacted by each.
The more those types of projects (open, local, creative and solidarity-based) are renewed permanently by participation and commitment of everyone, the more better things will follow naturally on other scales. And one could even bet that the number of defense-based associations (in defense of, in protection of) will spontaneously diminish!
That is why I am personally committed into this adventure and throwing the challenge. And this is why I’ll ride for Cafe Sauvage.
FOLLOW THE ADVENTURE LIVE
– When on the road, I’ll publish news on Facebook on a regular basis (images, stories or impressions): you can follow it live. Don’t hesitate to follow the page, spread the word and participate!
– I’ll keep the blog updated, whether during the trip or as a afterwards complement made of pictures and stories once the challenge is done.
– Last, I’ll be updating the map on this page (on the right) so that you can see where I am with the footbike, and what is left to ride!
PARTICIPATE !
The aim of the adventure is for the biggest part to contribute to the life of Cafe Sauvage, do my share, and ensure the continued existence of this kind of initiatives. I’m counting on you as well to succeed: make a donation, whatever your means and will (the amount is at your discretion, and everything will be redistributed to the association), and we’ll have contributed to make a (bit) better world!
Challenge fulfilled, the fundraising has ended, thanks to every participant, we did great !
