Nuits des idées 2023

I am pleased to share with you that we hosted a(nother one) fantastic and #educational event in the beautiful auditorium of our partner, the San Diego French American School. More than 90 people got connected for a night…

What was the topic? Well, with the support of the French Consulate in Los Angeles, we hosted the program created by our Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, la Nuit des idées, the night of ideas. This year's theme was "Plus/More?". We decide to turn it into less is more as the question mark after the "more?" is an invitation to debate. What better French movie could we have found to discuss the critical topic, reducing? After discussion and active research, we decided to promote Emmanuel Cappelin's documentary "Once you know" (Une fois que tu sais) about the environment. This movie is a journey across the abyss of a world at the edge of climate-induced collapse. Many scientists from the USA, Bangladesh, or France (Jean-Marc Jancovici, Richard Heinberg, Saleemul Huq, Susanne Moser, or Pablo Servigne) share their ideas and studies about how we are on a path of no return...

Now we know. So what do we do next? Do we hide and seek? Do we take actions?

Thanks to our panelists, Isabelle de Milan from the Mighty Bin, a zero waste store, Amelie Catheline from the Solana Beach Eco Rotary Club, Hayden Crocker from Go Greenish, and Ashley Mazanec from the EcoArts Foundation for replying to all our fears or giving us ideas to create beauty in terror. Thanks to Niels Lund from the Solana Beach Eco Rotary Club for facilitating that debate and making it interactive. As guests, we could ask questions, but not only. Through interactive games, we were part of the problem first and then the solution.

To stay true to the theme, we had the chance to eat organic, locally provided, foodie, and tasty food from Liz Murphy, the chef behind Santosha Nutrition and sponsored by the French Consulate in Los Angeles.

With the incredible help of the Solana Beach Eco Rotary club, Julie Morisot, their president, Amelie Catheline, all their members, and my dynamic team, including Laurence de Valmy, and all our guests, we gathered around a subject that sometimes leaves us hopeless because we feel like small. But together, we have a significant impact. Together we can create big ️things.

One of my favorite quotes is from Rumi "You are not one drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop".

So now, what do we do? How do we change our way of living with too much "more"?

At home or the office?

I'd love to read your ideas. In English, or French 😉.

Have a lovely weekend.