Correspondent
Languages
AFP / Lionel Bonaventure

Fanning the Tour

Monday 24 July 2017

“'It’s your first Tour?' I heard over and over again over the three weeks that I covered the legendary bike race," writes Mathieu Gorse, a sports journalist based in the French southern city of Toulouse.

“'You can’t understand what a Tour is until you’ve lived it from the inside.' How right they were. Turns out the Tour de France is not just one of the world’s premier physical challenges. It’s also a huge party."

Read more
An aerial view shows the Arc de Triomphe during the annual Bastille Day military parade on the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris on July 14, 2017. The parade on Paris's Champs-Elysees will commemorate the centenary of the US entering WWI and will feature hor AFP / Jean-sebastien Evrard

At play in the skies of Paris

Jean-Sebastien Evrard Friday 21 July 2017

"It’s been days, but I’m still having trouble coming back down to earth," writes Nantes-based photographer Jean-Sebastien Evrard. "To spend more than two hours circling above Paris in a military helicopter on France’s national day is not an experience one quickly forgets."

Read more
A girl dressed in a traditional costume rehearses before going on stage to perform during a presentation of the Capoeira for Peace project in Kinshasa on September 26, 2016 AFP / Eduardo Soteras

First foray in Africa

Agnès Bun Friday 14 July 2017

"I was barely out of the plane when an immigration officer offered to show me on his phone a video of foreigners being beheaded," writes Agnes Bun, a video journalist based in New Delhi. "His colleague next to him proposed to me. It’ll be a while before I forget my arrival in the Democratic Republic of Congo."

Read more
In this photograph taken on May 5, 2017, lotus flowers blossom in the Khao Sam Roi Yot national park in southern Thailand. AFP / Roberto Schmidt

The sacred lotus

Roberto Schmidt Tuesday 11 July 2017

"When we heard that the lotus was blooming once again after 10 years, we had to do a story on it," writes Bangkok-based photographer Roberto Schmidt. "The flower is considered sacred in Thai culture and the idea of seeing hundreds and hundreds of them blooming on a lake was too good to pass up."

Read more