Young Explorers Meeting in Paris

Young Explorers Eugénie Guillaume and Alizée Cugney gatherd Young Explorers from all around Europe for an exciting meeting in Paris.

Young Explorers Blog

As soon as everyone arrived on Friday evening, we left on a long night walk, to discover the city and see some of Paris's main attractions.

After a breakfast at midday, we went through some projects presentations, in particular the Serbia Project. These projects are a real opportunity to raise awareness amongst the youth in Serbia and to promote a sustainable message. Having this reunion lead us to talk about important topics such as the Pangaea Association, the Pangaea grant and the project selected … We also talked about how to improve our position in order to reach more and more people.  We think that our aim is to inspire people by showing the projects done, to exchange ideas for new/upcoming projects, and to get people involved in them. I think this conversation was a great start and we need this kind of reunion so that everyone can express themselves and we can think more about the future.

After this reunion, some young explorers went to discover the Chateau de Versailles and the others rested and prepared themselves for the tough and long night ahead.

After lunch and some French wine testing it was time to explore the Paris’ underground.

At the beginning the young explorers were asking lots of questions about the catacombs of Paris. We met our guide late in the evening and after a walk in tunnels and in wastelands in the city, we went to explore the underground of Paris by entering through a small hole in the ground.  

What an exploration! We experienced every sensation: warm, cold, wet, dirt, sleep, excitement, loss… It’s incredible to walk in these quarries that were made during the Middle Age, to meet people having their dinner there, listening to music. That was the discovery of another world that is 30m under the city, of new people, of new sensations and of the feeling that we had to trust and follow our guide because he was the only one who knew the path.

When you start the walk 11:00 PM and surface at 6 AM, you feel more alive than ever, hearing the life of the city, feeling the fresh air of the early morning and having one only thought: coming back soon!

Reflections

“For me it was an incredible experience seeing this amazing sub-culture in the Katakombs 30 meters under Paris. The best for me was the Jump and Run all along the night where we always had to jump from one small ledge on the right side to the other small ledge on the other side so that we don't fall into the knee-deep water in the middle.” -Marius Wiggert (Africa Selection Camp)

 

“It is incredible and impressive how the catacombs can exist as such an unkown parallel world to a world metropolis like Paris.” – Ansgar Fellendorf (Nunavut Expedition)

 

After hours in the dark of the catacombs I was infinitely grateful to finally be on on the earth´s surface again. This experience had challenged me especially mentally. I knew that I would not have found my way out of this gigantic maze by myself. It was an experience that made me appreciate things I usually take for granted. I am happy we all survived! ;) – Luana Rebholz-Chaves (Magnetic North Pole Expedition)

 

Young Explorer Participants:

Kerstin Dörner

Lars Bulthaupt

Simon Straetker

Ansgar Fellendorf

Marius Wiggert

Luana Rebholz-Chaves

Anni and Birke Chaves

Christopher Barco

Theresa Kaiser

Felix Hsu

Ann-Kathrin Geiger

Livio Knori

Eugénie Guillaume

Alizée Cugney

 

Pictures By Ansgar Fellendorf & Ann-Kathrin Geiger