Hi everyone. I am plan on relocating to France and I am looking for a place in n the South. Did anyone use a relocation agent for their move? If so was it of value?
I am looking for a town or village that is lively and has a strong artistic community. Around Toulouse and down.
I would really appreciate any feedback.
Thank you in advance. 
I have been trying for 2 weeks to upload documents to ANTS for the drivers license exchange. For the life of me I canโt seem to do it. Can anyone recommend someone who handles this for expats?
Bonjour! I would love to hear your thoughts on living in or near Chartres. My husband and I, both dual U.S. French citizens in our 60s, will leave the Bay Area in the next year. We are considering Chartres, where his mother was born, and for its river setting, its magnificent cathedral, and easy proximity to Paris. We would greatly appreciate any thoughts from those who live there now or who have lived there about the region’s overall quality of life and its community, expat and otherwise. I am an American-born writer and would love to connect with other artists there. Merci!
A contribution by Nel Bonilla.
If youโve arrived here via my recent interview on Neutrality Studies with Pascal Lottazโthank you. Iโm deeply grateful for your interest in these issues, which, unfortunately, grow more urgent by the day.
A few words about me and what to expect from Worldlines:
My training in human geography, migration studies, and sociology informs my analysis of how systems, not just individuals (although individuals are part of this, too, but mostly as part of larger groups), shape global power constellations. I study elite networks, structural and organized violence, and the hidden machinery of geopolitics, sometimes with a focus on how institutions engineer loyalty and conflict.
At Worldlines, I examine the largely invisible architecture of contemporary geopolitics, the circuitry beneath it, through, for example:
๐น Elite Strategy: The institutions, foundations, and revolving-door careers that convert private capital into public policy.
๐น How Conflict Gets Designed: Why terms like โstrategic ambiguityโ and โmulti-domain warfareโ are descriptive words of blueprints for endless escalation and certainly not about resolving conflicts.
๐น Structural Continuities: The persistent hegemonic logic linking Cold War containment to todayโs “great power competition” with all its human and political consequences.
My aim is not to follow headlines, but to understand the long-term processes that drive them. Occasionally, Iโll respond to specific news events, but always through a structural lens.
Suggested Entry Points
Here are a few pieces to begin with, depending on your interests:
Forthcoming
Iโm currently developing a new long-form piece under the working title:
โWeaponizing Time & Uncertaintyโ
It examines how strategic ambiguity is employed to prolong instability, suggesting that global permanent tension is the intended outcome. Of course, this will be explained and laid out in much more detail.
A note on rhythm and timing
Iโm in the final phase of my PhD dissertation, so major essays appear around every three weeks for now. Once the thesis is submitted, Iโll publish more frequently and include Q&As, research tips, and behind-the-scenes posts. These are historic times, and I believe they warrant a careful and critical record.
In any case, Iโm especially eager to hear from you, dear readers, how does this analysis resonate with your context (wherever you are in the world)? Share your thoughts in the comments.
https://substack.com/home/post/p-168426706
“Humanityโ is not always a virtue – it can also be a soft mechanism to produce the most civilized forms of violence.
When the banner of the human is raised, the real human is often displaced in favor of a metaphysical image that justifies everything.
Then โhumanityโ is no longer an ethical promise, but becomes a pretext: sometimes for interventions, sometimes for liquidations and often enough for deliberate overlooking.
Carl Schmitt, one of the sharpest demystifiers of politics, put it in a nutshell:
Those who wave the flag of โhumanityโ are not necessarily looking for justice, but often for legitimization to exclude the enemy from the realm of the human – to place him outside of justice and compassion.
It is a warning: if the discourse of humanity is used as a moral absolute, it does not bring about peace – it rather sets the stage for limitless violence.
For those who are excluded from it are redefined – as โnon-humansโ who are entitled to neither legal protection nor linguistic recognition.
In this way, โhumanityโ is transformed from an ethical promise into an instrument of existential annihilation:
The enemy no longer appears as a being to be understood or confronted, but as a defect that must be eliminated.
Any โhumanityโ that denies the enemy his humanity paves the way for his destruction – in the name of โgoodโ.
Can a truly human person preserve his humanity while waging war in its name?
Isn’t it time to rethink โhumanityโ – not as a buzzword, but as a responsibility?
Perhaps the more crucial question is not who speaks in the name of humanity – but who has the courage to question what is committed in its name.
Muhammed Sabbah
War: this is the cruel and ridiculous adventure that men embark on when the oats of madness sting themโฆ
La guerre : c’est l’aventure cruelle et dรฉrisoire dans laquelle les hommes s’engagent quand l’avoine de la folie les piqueโฆ
Krieg: das ist das grausam-lรคcherliche Abenteuer, in das sich Mรคnner einlassen, wenn sie der Hafer des Wahnsinns stichtโฆ
Siegfried Lenz
J’ai รฉtรฉ un enfant autrefois. Tout comme vous.
J’รฉtais un homme. Et maintenant, je suis un vieillard.
Le temps a passรฉ. Je suis toujours lร
Et je voudrais oublier ce que je sais.
J’รฉtais un enfant. Un homme. Maintenant, je suis usรฉ.
Celui qui vit longtemps en a assez un jour.
รa ne me dรฉrangerait pas de mourir.
Je suis si fatiguรฉ. Les autres disent que c’est intelligent.
Ah, j’ai vu bien des piรจces dans le thรฉรขtre du monde.
J’ai รฉtรฉ un enfant comme vous.
J’ai รฉtรฉ un homme. Un ami. Un pรจre.
Et la plupart du temps, c’รฉtait dommage de perdre son tempsโฆ
Je pourrais vous raconter diffรฉrentes choses,
Des choses qui ne sont pas dans vos livres de lecture.
Des histoires qui manquent dans les livres d’histoire,
Ce sont toujours celles dont on parle le plus.
Nous avons eu la guerre. Nous l’avons vue telle qu’elle รฉtait.
Nous avons souffert de la misรจre et nous avons vu comment elle est nรฉe.
Les grands mensonges ont รฉtรฉ rรฉvรฉlรฉs.
J’ai bien connu quelques-uns des menteurs.
Oui, j’ai vu plusieurs piรจces au thรฉรขtre mondial.
Je regrette encore aujourd’hui le prix d’entrรฉe.
J’รฉtais un enfant. Un homme. Un ami. Un pรจre.
Et la plupart du temps, c’รฉtait dommage de perdre du tempsโฆ
Nous espรฉrions. Mais l’espoir รฉtait prรฉsomptueux.
Et la raison restait รฉloignรฉe comme une รฉtoile.
Ceux qui venaient aprรจs nous avaient vite oubliรฉ.
Ceux qui sont venus aprรจs nous n’avaient rien appris.
Ils avaient la guerre. Ils ont vu ce qu’elle รฉtait.
Ils souffraient de la misรจre et voyaient comment elle naissait.
Les grands mensonges se sont rรฉvรฉlรฉs.
Les grands mensonges ne sont jamais reconnus.
Et maintenant vous venez. Je ne peux rien vous lรฉguer :
Faites ce que vous voulez. Mais retenez bien cette parole :
La raison, chacun doit l’acquรฉrir par lui-mรชme,
Et seule la stupiditรฉ se reproduit gratuitement.
Le monde n’est que jalousie. Et de querelles. Et de la souffrance.
Et la plupart du temps, c’est dommage de perdre son temps.
Erich Kรคstner
Ich war einmal ein Kind. Genau wie ihr.
Ich war ein Mann. Und jetzt bin ich ein Greis.
Die Zeit verging. Ich bin noch immer hier
Und mรถchte gern vergessen, was ich weiร.
Ich war ein Kind. Ein Mann. Nun bin ich mรผrbe.
Wer lange lebt, hat eines Tags genug.
Ich hรคtte nichts dagegen, wenn ich stรผrbe.
Ich bin so mรผde. Andre nennen’s klug.
Ach, ich sah manches Stรผck im Welttheater.
Ich war einmal ein Kind, wie ihr es seid.
Ich war einmal ein Mann. Ein Freund. Ein Vater.
Und meistens war es schade um die Zeit…
Ich kรถnnte euch verschiedenes erzรคhlen,
Was nicht in euren Lesebรผchern steht.
Geschichten, welche im Geschichtsbuch fehlen,
Sind immer die, um die sich alles dreht.
Wir hatten Krieg. Wir sahen, wie er war.
Wir litten Not und sah’n, wie sie entstand.
Die groรen Lรผgen wurden offenbar.
Ich hab’ ein paar der Lรผgner gut gekannt.
Ja, ich sah manches Stรผck im Welttheater.
Ums Eintrittsgeld tut’s mir noch heute leid.
Ich war ein Kind. Ein Mann. Ein Freund. Ein Vater.
Und meistens war es schade um die Zeit…
Wir hofften. Doch die Hoffnung war vermessen.
Und die Vernunft blieb wie ein Stern entfernt.
Die nach uns kamen, hatten schnell vergessen.
Die nach uns kamen, hatten nichts gelernt.
Sie hatten Krieg. Sie sahen, wie er war.
Sie litten Not und sah’n, wie sie entstand.
Die groรen Lรผgen wurden offenbar.
Die groรen Lรผgen werden nie erkannt.
Und nun kommt ihr. Ich kann euch nichts vererben:
Macht, was ihr wollt. Doch merkt euch dieses Wort:
Vernunft muร sich ein jeder selbst erwerben,
Und nur die Dummheit pflanzt sich gratis fort.
Die Welt besteht aus Neid. Und Streit. Und Leid.
Und meistens ist es schade um die Zeit.
Erich Kรคstner