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News 1 US: Hi guys

> 4.45AM / Liège-Paris-Miami
I close the door turn off the electricity go into the street with a heavy heart, my world tour is beginning...  12 kg on my back, 7 on the belly, a trolley filled with books and guides and you all that I bring with me.
> 6.30AM/ Desk Air France Station Midi Bxl Thalys to CDG
A man asks if I can help his 80 year old dad to find his way to Charles de Gaule Airport. I asked the traditional questions: Where are you going? In Papeete. For how long? 7 weeks. For tourism? to meditate... He has still so much promptness and youth in his glance. My thoughts are carrying me...
> 10.30AM Departure Charles de Gaule/ Paris
The plane is full, US sportsmen coming back from the world athletic championship in Paris. 26°C is announced in Miami... 
> 2.00PM Miami 
Immigration and customs formalities very long ... post September 11...
> 4.00PM Miami - Greenview Hotel - Miami Beach - Art Deco District 
The hotels of Miami can be compared to marshmallows. The beach makes me think of the North Sea, long beaches bordered with buildings, the ocean has the same scent... I acclimatize gently by drinking Margarita at the Rose Bar of Delano (Interiors by Starck), I passed through the large door...
> To be continued...
Miami rise in me a bunch of contradictory impressions... We are a hundred km away from Havana. Eldorado for thousands of Cubans and South American the city of Miami is however number 1 of poverty (31 % below the threshold). Zoe Valdes or Jesus Dias speak so well about these Cubans who sometimes leave their shore at the risk of their life for better or for worse. I took out a dose of consumerism on Ocean Drive: limousines as long as trucks, glowing 4 wheels at each corner of street, Versace, Calvin Klein, Victoria'S Secret, the longest legs, the sexiest tanned guys, there is more Foot Locker than bookshops... On the other hand, the return by Washington AV offers another face of Miami: Cuban homeless looking for a place on the pavement to fall asleep. Sometimes a sound coming from a restaurant or an hotel reminds me of the Cubans who remained in Cuba. I remember my meetings with old singers in Cienfuegos (Cuba) their energy. And the amazement of the Buena Vista Social Club'pappys when they discovered New York while giving a concert at Carnegie Hall. Gilberto Gil, singer and Minister of Culture in Brazil and Mana (Mexico) are in Miami tonight for Latin Grammy Awards. I look at the ceremony with curiosity as if I could find some brief answers there... but it will still take me time...

To listen ¯: Gloria Estefan, Mi Tierra
To sleep: Le Greenview , http://www.rubellhotels.com/, beautiful, white, floor in rooms, paintings of collection Rubell exposed in lobby, 70 $/night, access to swimming pool of Albion (we can see people who swims throughout portholes), free Internet access, service of a great kindness, for more information look at Extraordinary Hôtels, Petits Budgets, Ypma Townhouse,
The Townhouse, http://www.townhousehotel.com/, very trendy, the hotel white and red, is a little further away from the center and beside a tower in construction (for the moment).

Note 2 US: From East to Far West

4.09.03: The car is expected on September 4 in Jacksonville. I would take possession of it on the 5 in middle of day. I spent the night in one of these motels at the edge of road, pink and light blue motel, sleeping  "between" two truck-drivers (translate, I hear them snoring in the rooms next door). The bar is in the middle of the car parking and the happy hours are not alcohol free. After I carried out the customs formalities and obtained the authorization on the famous carnet of passage, the car has to be checked out by the Department of Agriculture (they want to make sure that I did not bring any germs or mad cow cut with me). At the end it seemed that only the GPS raised suspicion. In short everything was held very well. The car, a 4x4 Nissan X-trail, was transported from Belgium on a cargo. This formula is less expensive than transport by container. In the cargo, the car is simply attached on the boat and must be empty. By container, the car is protected and you can charge your stuff in it. The transport fee depends upon the weight and size of the vehicle. In my case, the price was $ 625 plus administrative expenses for one way. After having requested offers from several shipping agent, I opted for Geodis which was very proactive. In France, Allship is of very good advice. 
5.09.03 From East to the West  I leave Jacksonville for Los Angeles and cross 8 states from East to West: Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona and California. On the way, the same 3 straight outline. The landscape only will change: Floridian swamps where I drive "on the water", Houston and Dallas mega polis in the middle of nowhere and finally the Far West, burned, red. On my way I share the road with of long convoy of speeding trucks, U-Haul, Harley-Davidson, Vans (hauling their Hummer or 4 Wheels). Finally nobody seem really to respect the speed limit of 75 miles/h. Fortunately this time, no sheriff moustache around. It is as if I was playing in a Road movie, as in Thelma and Louise, although I miss Thelma and Brad Pitt has disappear from cheap motel a long time ago. My elbow on the edge of the window, blues filling the space of my cockpit, infinite straight lines in front of me, I have an immense feeling of freedom. The Road 66, that I had already crossed a few years ago, took my breath away again because of the space without limits, immense deserts, mountains, canyons, red, ochre, yellow, never repetitive... Where the road joined the horizon, I imagine that I will launch out in the vacuum of the sky.
1rst stage: New Orleans (Louisiane)  
Ella Fitzgerald, Armstrong, a rocking chair, a wooden terrace of a house of grower, parquet floor, fans... Here, the streets are called Dauphine, Chartres, Toulouse..., Louisiana is French.
2nd stage Santa Fe (New Mexico)
New Mexico offers at the same time the mountains the endless forests and the deserts. There are 6 Indian reserves, and twenty Indian villages along the Rio Grande. While driving towards Santa Fe, I had the impression of going to a magic city. Santa Fe, "the place to be": Spanish, Mexican, Indian and American. Set high up at 2200 m in mountain, it is characterized by its architectural style: low dried mud houses color brick which ignites with the sun. It belongs to the magical places earth currents passing through releasing flows of positive energy. Writers and artists have settled there for a long time. Art galleries are everywhere. I came here to explore the Indian Market and find silver bracelets crimped of turquoise but I am too late.
3rd stage Sedona (Arizona)   
Dazzling Spectacle. From Flagstaff, the 25 miles road towards Sedona brings you through the deep forest of the canyon. Along the road, the sunset set the rocks in fire. Like Santa Fe, Sedona takes advantage of the Californian yuppies passion for meditation in vast spaces. They come here to celebrate the worship of nature to find balance and harmony between body and soul. The area is a center of convergence of earth energies according to the Indians who came here for millenia. Those zones of junctions and magnetism are called Vortex. The Routard Guide tells you how when sitting on the Bell Rock, you are sent directly towards the Galaxy of Andromède.

 > Picture

09.08.03 Los Angeles

Road 66 ends in Santa Monica in front of the Pacific. After crossing wind mills fields and having a last stop in Palm Springs, true oasis in the middle of the desert,  I arrive in Los Angeles. What a pleasure to be with my friends Bernadette and Pilou in their L.A. apartment. I find here a charming and comfortable place with all what I like. In this smooth atmosphere I am pampered by my hosts and I do not know if I will be able to leave. It is as if invisible little hands wanted to keep me there... I dream intensely of Bahia, Antigua, Oaxaca in order to kick me back on to the road. Maybe because I am surrounded by doctors or because I took advantage of the pampering too much, I caught successively an ear infection and a dental problem. Finally Doctor Yi and L.A. will keep forever a little piece of my molar. 

It is not because of this recent dental problem that I am angry at America. This feeling can not be taking away as easily. Being in L.A. where I sleep surrounded by books about America (The History of American of Daniel Boorstin, the anti-American obsession of J.F. Revel...) prompts again multiple questions. And, as Bernadette told me, in those challenging times, it may be easier to express the "cons than the pros"... I do not like an arrogant America, obsessed by security, pushy marketing, empty sitcom, hyper technology, constant need for competition and money, the cult of appearance and the quest for white teeth... 

But I am not in this America right now. I am in a multicultural America. The American that I meet here (or their parents) are from elsewhere and brought into the US a little bit of their native country. Bernadette is from Belgium, Pilou Laos, Ray Mexico, Antony Burma, Miguel Mexico  (The important Mexican population of Los Angeles makes it the third Mexican city in the world after Mexico City and Guadalaraja), German is from Argentina, Zemba Zaire, and last but not least David "American-American" from Texas with another "basket" full of knowledge and tradition. I live in Koreatown. In a Hollywood coffee shop I  listen to poetries, a Swahili ballad, a rap song, a guitar melody... We spent  September 14th in Los Angeles celebrating a little bit in advance the anniversary of the Independence of Mexico. Mariachis,  Oaxaca dancers (and a few margaritas) transported us over there. At the restaurant Miguel asked a few traditional singers to offer us an almost private performance at our table. Soon we were singing together Cu Cu rru Cu Cu of Lola Belltran, the llorona of Chavela Vargas, a song of Mana and a typical song of Los Mochis...

What I appreciated also in this a country is that it gives to everybody an opportunity including to the illegal immigrants (3.000.000 in California including 300.000 within L.A.) This is even more tangible in Los Angeles where an administrative assistant may become the head of marketing department. You encounter prospective actors and scenario writers waiting for their lucky day. Do you know the last joke in L.A. :  when somebody tell you that he/she is an actor, ask him/her  "at what restaurant?". The atmosphere is full of ideas and projects. You have this feeling that everything can happen, that the future is like a slot machine and that if one play long enough the machine will eventually giving you the money or blowing up!

To drink a coffee: EspressoMiCultura, www.espressomicultura.com
To enjoy Art and and listen to jazz Friday night (for free): Lacma, www.lacma.org 
An hotel: The Standard www.standardhotel.com 
A cocktail: Sex one the beach: 1 oz. Vodka, 3/4 oz. each: Chambord & Peach Schnapps, splashes of Pineapple, Orange and Cranberry juices Shake with ice & serve.

Catherine, Los Angeles, September 22, 2003.