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Short Travel Stories

How do you describe autobiographical creative writings? They are both true and inspired. The following reflect Elsa’s life, as she saw it, as she felt it at the time of writing.

With fluctuating moods and capricious languages, Elsa Chesnel followed her emotions and at times wrote in French, in English, or switched from one to the other. As a French daughter, sister and friend, and as a translator having made her home in Anglo Canada, Elsa translated most of these pieces. Most are humorous. All are autobiographical. And if you ask me, the last ones are the best; which is why they are listed in reversed timeline order.

In Elsa’s life, hardship and adventures always go hand in hand. Writing is for her a way to make light of the situations and muster the excitement to dive into new ones.

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All Photographs are hers - except if otherwise specified.

4 Self portrait with Mehjo.jpg

Mongol Nostalgia

Bloodshot eyed and bare feet, I am boarding the plane to leave Mongolia. ...

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Of Cravacoc and Kamar

It all started in a family of three in Nizhny Novgorod, a city situated alon...

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A military march in April

Lithuanian woods in the spring. A greyish brown ground, dead leaves still...

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Paris - Different city, different vibe​

Somewhere in this city, I knew there was at least one place off the beaten...

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The strange city that is Marseille

So many people, so much hostility. In the streets, women always seem eithe...

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On the move, at last

It all started with this random idea of traveling the world on my own. On a w...

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A Full Russian Experience

It had been four long hours of bumping and bouncing on potholes, of breathin...

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Muscovite rapture

Everyone had told me I would dislike, if not hate, Moscow.   It may have been ...

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Druids on fire

The night started by a race for the tram for Ondřej, my host, was meeting his f...

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Bonding insanity at its best​

According to some legends, at the beginning of every year, each village...

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On the move No.2

Christmas looming closer, I needed to leave my cousin and his family in Berli...

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From curiosity to profession

“Curiosity killed the cat.”  I’m still alive. But then again, I’m not exactly a cat!...

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A dotted trail to Altay

Чемал, the name of a village, a name heard in Moscow from a member of t...

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Tallinn by night

It all started on a boring evening after walking through Tallinn's streets at sun...

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I am gone

I have officially spent a little more than three months in Western Europe, mos...

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On the move No.3

After researching thoroughly on various websites, I finally found the perfect m...

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Berlin - Germany

There where a few words collected here and there, quickly jolted on a random ...

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