antonin.coExploring
Side quests.
I want to be able to do everything. When something interests me, I want to learn it. I like believing there is nothing I cannot learn, even if I’m going to be terrible at it in the beginning. That’s how I approach my side quests.
I sometimes like to wear different identities. A suit and tie at an insane party in a hotel suite in Las Vegas. Sleeping in a church in Ethiopia. Sitting in ceremonies in the Amazon, or singing around a fire with hippies. I’m a hippie too :) I become part of the experience I’m living, and I try to meet people at the same level and frequency to really connect.
I think of myself as an eternal student. Living abroad keeps putting me in situations where I have something to learn. Another language, another way of living, another part of myself I hadn’t noticed before.
I’ve written a lot about time and memories. Familiar weeks can disappear so quickly. When I’m learning something, discovering a place, or getting to know someone, I have much more to remember. That’s a big part of why I love adventure. I want to enjoy the time we have here.
Some experiences bring a lot of joy. Others show me how much judgment I still carry, or how far my actions are from the love I say I believe in. I want to make room for those too.
If you want to know more about all the stuff I love, here’s a bit of my personal journey.
I · Living outside my bubble
Small roads, wild places
I converted a Renault Trafic into a campervan and kept it for fifteen years. Sometimes I spent up to three months on the road, travelling across Europe, Morocco, and the Canary Islands. A lot of those roads led to a kite spot.
On my birthday in 2023, I was in the mountains between Portugal and Spain, taking small roads and staying in wild places. I wrote about feeling connected to the sounds of animals, plants, water, and everything around me. Being there helped me appreciate life, relax, and clear my mind.
That trip also brought me to singing circles at Tamera and ecstatic dance in Lisbon. I could work remotely, spend time alone in nature, then find people to sing with. I love having that freedom.
In May 2026, I sold the van to a surfer. Saying goodbye was emotional. Fifteen years is a lot of memories, and I was happy she would keep having a good life without me.
II · What stayed with me
The Himalaya, and learning to be a student again
Discovering the Himalaya had been a dream for a long time. In October 2024, I walked from Bhagsu towards Laka Glacier. I had planned to go alone, then Ananda, who I’d met a couple of days earlier, decided to join. Barefoot. We spent thirty-six hours walking and camping together.
Afterwards, I spent ten days at Tushita. I handed over my phone and computer, stopped talking, and went back to school to study Buddhist philosophy and meditate.
One practice that stayed with me was prostration. I understood it as a way to practise humility, to recognise how much I still have to learn and how easily my ego gets in the way. I liked that the teachings focused on bringing more love and happiness into the world, and reducing suffering.
We also had a small daily job. Mine was cleaning the stupas. Learning, meditating, eating in silence, helping keep the place clean. I felt grateful for that simple life.
Lalibela, opening my heart
I arrived in Lalibela without planning to be there during the celebrations. What a divine timing. I slept in a church, prayed, shared food, laughed, and ended up playing football with children I’d just met.
On the first day, I prayed to God and Jesus for guidance to continue opening my heart. And this is exactly what I felt I received. For years, I’ve been trying to follow Jesus’ wisdom as a model of love I admire.
What touched me was becoming part of the community for a moment. People gave me so much care, friendship, and respect. I felt humbled to be welcomed into their lives. There was an exchange, and I received a lot.
I wrote about how often we live isolated in richer countries, and how unsure I am that money makes up for the lack of connection. In Lalibela, faith was lived through people being together, praying and singing. That stayed with me much more than a visit to the churches alone could have.
I later built a website with a local guide. I wanted to help people discover the place and the people who had welcomed me.
The Lalibela website I built
Mexico, another way of understanding life
For a long time, I saw the world in a very rational, materialist way. In Mexico, I wrote that I had been stuck in rationality and controlled by my ego most of my life. Direct experiences made me curious about spirituality and helped me relate to that ego differently.
I went to Huautla de Jiménez, a small village in the mountains of Oaxaca, and joined a mushroom ceremony with a local healer. It is part of that personal exploration. I’m still learning how to bring what I experience in ceremonies into daily life.
In Oaxaca, a family welcomed me for Día de Muertos and let me add my grandparents to their altar. Seeing their photographs there, surrounded by candles and offerings, touched me so much. I was far from home, remembering my own family with people who had just welcomed me into theirs.
There were also off-road motorbikes in the jungle, Puerto Escondido, and music and fire circles in Tulum. I loved being able to move between those different experiences.
The Amazon, judgment and humility
I spent ten days in a Yawanawá village in the Brazilian Amazon, sharing forest walks, time in the river, music, and four ayahuasca ceremonies. The tribe welcomed us into their home and ran the gathering on their terms. We were guests. I’d first sat in ayahuasca ceremonies with a Colombian shaman years earlier. This visit came after a long period of spiritual and shadow work.
I wrote down four teachings from the ceremonies: judgment, oneness, learning traditional Saité songs, and humility. Some moments were pure bliss, melting into the music and feeling connected to the earth beneath me. Others showed me the gap between my words and my actions. A real slap in the face regarding my ego.
While everyone was singing and moving in a circle, I had to step back. I felt out of sync with their frequency. I could see how much judgment I still carried, and how much humility I needed to learn to truly join that state of love. It was uncomfortable. These are also the insights I love to receive.
The music stayed with me too. Families playing together, singing as part of life. I learnt my first song on the guitar there. I came home wanting to create more gatherings where we can sing and remember that we belong to each other.
When a place becomes personal
In Lombok, getting to know Kas took me beyond surfing. I visited his family’s farm, shared meals, and cut and chewed sugar cane. Through him, I got to discover part of his life.
When you meet someone like that, you want to go back. I built him a website so other people could find him and spend time surfing or visiting the farm with him too.
Around Indonesia, I’ve also spent days following rivers, finding waterfalls, and sometimes making music with friends along the way. I climbed down to Kelingking Beach in Nusa Penida and camped among the trees at a Rainbow gathering in Bali. I love spending time in these wild places with people.
Go meet Kas
Being comfortable in different worlds
Business has brought me to Las Vegas several times. Through that world, I met a billionaire friend from a very wealthy family who threw an insane party in the suite of a very expensive hotel. Very high-roller style. I felt really good there.
Sometimes I wear a suit and tie and look like a business guy. Somewhere else, I’m a hippie singing around a fire. Both feel like me. I enjoy adjusting myself to the experience and meeting people where they are.
I want to be able to connect across those worlds. To understand what people enjoy, share their enthusiasm, and be part of what is happening with them.
Havana, life in the streets
In Havana, I loved seeing people talk, dance, and play music everywhere. I wrote about how wonderful the culture was, and also how difficult life could be.
I’m drawn to places where people spend time together and music is part of daily life. Havana is one of those memories for me.
III · Getting out of my head
Nature was always my gym.
Following the wind
Kitesurf is by far my favourite sport. Remi sold me my first kite in 2006. Since then, I’ve been to more than thirty spots around the world. A lot of my travel decisions start with checking where the wind is blowing :)
Beauduc became a big part of my life. I bought the van partly because sleeping in a tent in more than thirty knots of wind, day and night, wasn’t so comfortable. There have been sessions in Dakhla, the Canaries, France, Brazil, Vietnam, and Indonesia. My Hoa in Vietnam became one of my favourites.
In Jeneponto, I reached 11.3 metres in September 2026. After all these years, I’m still working on landings and finding things to learn.
Snowkiting takes that love into the mountains. At Col du Lautaret, I can climb with the wind, far from the ski stations. I also ski and snowboard, including a few snowy days in the streets of Prague. Back in 2013, I stayed in a snowkite-school chalet in the Alps. I wrote: ‘At night is just me and the mountain.’
Trying another board
When there are waves, I surf. There have been sessions in the Canaries, in Lombok with Kas, and at surf camps where I can combine the ocean with working remotely. I even brought my office chair to one in October 2026.
I first tried wingfoiling in Fuerteventura in 2021. Wakeboarding has brought cable-park days near Barcelona and a birthday weekend at Ruhlsdorf in Germany. I also enjoy sailing, fishing, and snorkelling, especially with friends. Sometimes I come back with a fish. Sometimes the fishing rod breaks.
Skateparks, trails, and playing like kids
Back in 2015, I wrote that I loved extreme sports because they let me disconnect my brain from the pressure of the world. You’re too focused on not falling to think about something else 😂 That’s still one of the reasons I love them.
Skateboarding, aggressive inline skating, electric boards, longboards. I’ve also played around on mountainboards in Beauduc, including being pulled by a car when there was no wind. And practised flips on trampolines. In the caption, I called it ‘playing like kids’.
Mountain biking has taken me into the Calanques after work, through trails around Barcelona and the Pyrenees with my brother, and downhill riding in Oregon. I loved La Molina, where a lift took us up to 2,500 metres for the ride down.
I ride motorbikes too, including off-road days in Mexico, Thailand, and Indonesia. And I’m very good at karting. I love an outdoor circuit and happily spend time trying to drive it better.
The Calanques and places I can reach on foot
Marseille is where I come from, and I do a lot of outdoor rock climbing there. The Calanques have been part of my life for years. My old posts have climbing sessions at Marseilleveyre, mountain biking after work, and waterlining at Sormiou.
When I lived in Prague, there was bouldering and slacklining too. I also go canyoning, even though I haven’t shared those days in my stories.
Hiking has taken me into the Himalaya, around Lalibela, through mountains in Europe, and along rivers and waterfalls. I love being outside. As I wrote during my trip through Portugal, it helps me live more in the moment and clears my mind.
From the stadium to a game with new friends
As a teenager, I went to OM games and sang with the stadium for ninety minutes. Years later, I wrote that it had been as much about that powerful feeling of being together as watching football.
Now I also play, in Thailand and Bali, and wherever a game happens. In Lalibela, an improvised match became another way of spending time with the children I’d met. The school manager asked me to come back the next day.
I love how easily a game lets people join each other. That feeling of having a team around me is part of what I enjoy.
I’m happy to be a beginner
I’ve played tennis at a competitive level and practised judo. I also play table tennis, beach volleyball, and basketball, and practise yoga. In Koh Phangan, I’ve trained Muay Thai and taken MMA classes. In Venice Beach, I joined slackline and rope-climbing sessions.
For a long time, nature was my gym. More recently, I started going to the gym and building a steadier strength routine alongside calisthenics and bodyweight training.
Sometimes I try something less familiar, like horse riding. In 2016, I posted a selfie with a horse that had thrown me off and then got into a fight with another horse. I still loved him haha. I like believing I can learn something before I know how to do it. That leaves me free to join in and see how far I want to take it.
IV · Finding each other
A warehouse full of people
In London, I lived in a converted warehouse with a community of young creative people. In one post, I was happy about a spontaneous dinner with seventeen people. In another, I came home to a big jam session.
Those photos are from 2012 and 2013, long before the retreats and singing circles. I already loved living around people, sharing food, and having music in the house. Looking back, that part of me was always there.
Singing, dancing, and finding each other
Singing at OM games, coming home to a jam in London, singing around a fire in Mexico or with the Yawanawá. I’ve found that feeling of being together in so many places.
I love singing circles and ecstatic dance. Salsa, bachata, rueda, zouk, contact improvisation, and reggaeton workshops have been part of this too. Sometimes I find teachers through Instagram and eventually get to learn with them in person.
I also want to help create these gatherings. In Fuerteventura, I helped organise an Ecstatic Day. In Koh Phangan, we created Divine Ecstatic because I noticed how often people danced alone, feeling shy, judging themselves, or unsure how to approach someone. We brought a workshop before the dance to help us connect, then ended with a singing circle.
I’d been DJing drum and bass for over a decade. I started creating ecstatic-dance sets and sound journeys as well. I enjoy bringing the music I love into the communities I’m part of.
Bringing it into daily life
I remember arriving for my first retreat at Avalon. Later, Koh Phangan made spiritual practice part of my daily life. Yoga, breathwork, dancing, singing, workshops. I love that world, and I also wrote about the comfort of living in a spiritual bubble. Sometimes I missed entrepreneurial energy. Sometimes I felt we were consuming spirituality rather than embodying it.
For most of my life, I felt disconnected from my body and breath, trapped in my mind. After years of inner work and therapy, I wrote that my ego armour had become much lighter. I still have conditioning and triggers. I’m getting better at noticing the emotions they create and choosing what I do with them.
Breathwork and singing help me ground what I experience in ceremonies. I want to bring those insights into ordinary days, with all the people and situations that come with them. It’s a lifelong journey.
V · Places I’ve called home
I was born in France, in Marseille. Since then, I’ve lived in the Netherlands, the U.S., the UK, the Czech Republic, Spain, Germany, and Thailand. London was my home in the UK.
I’m still finding new things I want to learn. The latest ones tend to end up on Instagram, along with the people I meet and whatever else happens along the way.
Follow along on Instagram