This website was neither planned nor designed. It just evolved over the last decade or so from a way to offer my services as a consultant after retiring from public service in 1990 to the hobby of posting photos of my adventures backpacking all over the world and gradually, without my noticing it, to a place where I express my innermost thoughts and interrogations. I think that life is a statement,  and that, the internet is a good place to make it public. That's what this site has become. It's about, my life, my adventures and my vision of the world.

It is a huge 430 megabyte site with 8 600 photos and about 500 000 words in each of English, French and Spanish (the equivalent of three 1400 page books). There are four ways you can access its contents:
 1)  You might enjoy travelling with me by reading my travelogues
 2)  Or you could prefer to go directly to one of the countries I have visited via the list provided. (The flags link to the national anthems.)
 3)  You could also go directly to the data pages where I provide some background information, impressions.and thoughts.
 4)  Finally, you can use the Google search engine below to find a city, a place, a person, a topic or an idea in this site or on the web.

I have always enjoyed the adrenaline rush of adventure. When I was a student, I preferred to spend my summers working in Alberta, instead of staying in the East, because I could explore the Rockies on long weekends. At 22, I went on a 15 000 mile backpacking tour around North America that took me all the way to Acapulco in the summer of 1956. At that time, it was still possible to hitch hike and ride empty freight trains in the USA. Now, that would be suicidal!

In 1962, I went to Paris for post-graduate studies and liked Europe so much that I stayed there for 8 years before coming back to Quebec. My 30 year career in the oil and gas industry provided me with numerous occasions to travel all over the world. I am no longer looking for work but I would still be available for a particularly interesting short term job abroad. As the saying goes, "Have grey cells, will travel!" ( See my curriculum vitae.)

Now that I am free as a butterfly, my favorite activities are exploring new places and discovering new ideas. I take lots of photos but what I enjoy most is meeting new people. Learning how they live and trying to understand their values helps me understand myself better. I travel in winter and write during the summer.

My other hobbies, besides travel and writing about it, are doing things with computers, cooking and collecting rare or beautiful objects. I also love studying history, anthropology, sociology, psychology, religions and philosophies. Exploring the world of ideas is also a great adventure.

I am not very fond of sports nor of music; it's a pity but I miss out on those pleasures. I have also missed out on the joys of matrimony for my wife adopted the ganja culture at the tail end of the hippie movement in the early '70's and left me to raise my son alone when he was only three years old. I have lived alone most of my life and have adapted well to solitude.

Life has been good to me and I can say that I'm a happy person for I've always enjoyed an excellent health until recently, good luck, good friends and more good times than bad. I have also enjoyed many very diverse hobbies such as restoring an ancient stone farm house, breeding pedigree sheep, making a decent table wine etc. When I was younger, I also tasted the pleasures of mountain climbing, camping, hunting, sailing and even those of painting and sculpture.

Now that I am nearing sunset, I am favoured by the sincere friendship of a few dear ones and by the warm response of the readers of this website. When I leave the stage some day, it will be with a smile, without false hopes nor fear.

I continue developing this site for the pleasure of sharing the joys of discovery with you. Meeting wonderful people of all skin colours, ethnic origins and beliefs has inspired me to set up the Humanist Foundation of Quebec to promote critical thinking and intercultural tolerance.

You may download and use the globetrotter's photos provided you mention "Photo by Bernard Cloutier" with a link to this site below each photo. High resolution versions can be acquired from our agent Travel-Images.com.

If you feel like it, you may exchange comments and impressions with other readers in the questbook or express them to me privately by the e-mail link. Putting a link on your web site, if you have one, would invite your viewers to enjoy free virtual travel as I hope you did.