Photos et lettres des Philippines, de France et d'ailleurs

It is in 1964 that all started. Initially my military service made me discover the French Riviera. What a wonderful place for a guy raised in the north of France. Then from June 1964 till June 1965, I was sent to New Caledonia. I didn't see many things outside Noumea but the climate, the hot sea and the coconut trees left an indelible mark in my memory.

When later in September 1975 I met again the coconut trees, it was while visiting Thailand and Laos. Like the Pacific, the Southeast Asia left forever its print in my mind.

In September 1976 I went to Malaysia and Indonesia visiting Sumatra, Java and Bali.

North India and Nepal followed in 1977 then Mexico, Belize and Guatemala in 1978.

However my heart had remained in Southeast Asia and in 1979 I cancelled my holidays in the USA to go again in Thailand. Bangkok, Koh Samui and Phuket were my destinations. It was in Phuket that I spent most of my time. It should be said that at the time Kuta beach was a destination of backpackers and with only a large hotel and some bungalows, the beach was almost unspoiled. In October 1999 on my way to Australia, I was able to see what all that had become. Sorry!  Thailand was no longer for me.

It is in Phuket that I met a sixty-year-old Anglo-Australian, Jeff. He didn't stop telling stories about the Philippines, of the kindness of people, the beauty of the girls and her fiancée Leova who worked as a nurse in London.

During the winter of 1979, I received a phone call at the office. It was Jeff who had sprained his ankle while touring the beaches of the Normandy landing with his new wife, Leova.

I immediately took the train to fetch them in Caen and to drive them to my home in Paris with their Volkswagen van. They remained 8 days in my place. As I was still single Jeff tried to convince to me to take a wife in the Philippines and to leave my two-room apartment of the 20th district of Paris for the greatest spaces of Australia.

Leova also asked me if I wouldn't mind later to be the Paris guide of her friend a flight attendant of San Francisco.

Jeff's ankle healed, they finally left for Athens and once again I lived my Parisian routine. Two months later I received again a phone call at the office but this time it was the friend stewardess staying at a hotel near place de la Concorde who wanted to see me.

My God when I met her I couldn't believe my eyes. She was so much beautiful with her long black hair. Her first name was Aurelia and since then one of my nieces was named after her.

It is thus with pleasure and pride that I made her visit Paris in the evening and the next weekend.

Finally I thought that it would not be such a stupid idea to have one day a Filipina wife.

Therefore it was decided, my next holidays scheduled for May 1980 would be in the Philippines. I did not know yet that that was going to change the course of my life.