Los Angeles: what an amazing city!

Los Angeles. Probably the city I’d like the most to go back. Everyone has still heard from Los Angeles, it’s the city which embodies the best the American Dream! If you have the occasion to go there, catch it, it worth it!

If you’re a great movie fan, two places are unavoidable for you: Venice Beach, the famous pedestrian street facing the pacific ocean were a lot of very famous films and series have been shot, and the Universal Studios just next to Hollywood. Believe me, I’ve been there and it’s without doubt the most amazing theme park I’ve ever been! They show you behind the scene how the biggest Hollywood blockbusters have been realised, films and series like Bagdad Café, Fast&Furious, Jurassic Park, The Blues Brothers or Desperate Housewife’s. And I haven’t told you everything so you’ll still have surprises there!

You could also see how Los Angeles is a multicultural town, with all its ethnical districts like Chinatown, Koreatown, Little Armenia, Little Tokyo, Little Ethiopia, Thai Town… And there are still others!

If you prefer to surprise your taste buds, you have to know that there are hundreds of ways to turn all those national cuisines into tacos or burritos. It’s probably not the best way to improve your figure, but some of these culinary preparations are soooooo gooooood!

If all these arguments still not convinced you, just notice that in Los Angeles the sun shines 329 days a year, maybe a good way to escape the dreariness that you face in your everyday life…

Half Moon Bay: kitesurfers's paradise !

      Half Moon Bay is a coastal city located in the south of San Francisco. The city in itself is not very big and it doesn't have a real interest for tourists. We went there almost by chance because we wanted to reach San Francisco from Los Angeles by car, but it was too far away to achieve it in a day; so we decided to sleep there, primarily because the motels were cheaper than in other cities of the coast. 

      When we arrived there by car, we were flabbergasted by the beautiful uncrowded beach which had the shape of a crescent moon. It was very windy and we knew that every year accidents happen because of sharks so we stayed on the beach. But we were, with a few other tourists, the only ones who stayed on the beach without daring to put a toe in the water: the great majority of the people there came on this special beach to practice kitesurfing. In fact, it's one of the most famous spots in California for water sport: the wind is strong and constant throughout the year, there isn't any rock under water all along the beach against kitesurfers can get hurt and the several meters high waves allow kitesurfers to perform the craziest figures.

    I spent most of the afternoon on the beach watching those people being towed with these big kites, and this filled me with wonder so much that the following summer I registered in an intensive kitesurfing training in south of France!

San Fransisco

Also called "the City by the Bay", it's located in the north of California, US. I went there four years ago, during a three week road trip with my family across California. I'm going to tell you here what I thought of this city, what impressed me and what you absolutely must do if you go there!

So, I went there during August, but, surprising , the weather wasn't so good: it was cloudy, very windy and we also had some rain. What a change when we came from very sunny Palm Springs and its 45°C!

The first thing that I noticed was that the almost constant fog over the Golden Gate bridge was not only a legend: it was just impossible to see SF when we were on the other side of the bridge!

One of the absolute “must do” is to take the cable-car to reach the heights of the city: the view over San Francisco and the island of Alcatraz (which is an old prison) is absolutely fantastic!

We also visited the different multicultural districts like Mission, Chinatown and also the famous gay neighbourhood called Castro. I admired the fact that all these different cultures lived together without much tension within the same city.

A few weeks after my trip, the international rally driver Ken Block performed a new video with his prepared Ford Fiesta in the streets of San Francisco, here's a link to the video:

 KEN BLOCK'S GYMKHANA FIVE: ULTIMATE URBAN PLAYGROUND; SAN FRANCISCO

#SanFrancisco