Anywhere we moved in the world, we had to start over and build our network of friends, of professional acquaintances, of artists: our tribes.

When we first moved to the USA, to live in Silicon Valley, we had to leave behind our friends tribe, our extended family back in France. For 14 years, we had build this tight group of close friends, the one that our daughters call uncles and aunts. That was and still is a fabulous part of our life. Of course distance reduced the frequency of our interactions but technology allows us to share great moments: friends parties, trips between friends. Some of them were able to visit us and appreciated our choice of living abroad. In retrospect, we never completely left this first tribe of ours, around Lyon and some other places.

Arriving in Palo Alto was an enjoyable and life changing experience. Even though there is a lot of european feelings and customs in this town and in San Francisco, we needed to adapt to the pace of startup life, out-of-your-familiar-waters life experiences. And slowly among co-workers, french community and other americans met through public shools, we built our second tribe of friends. A novelty was building a professional/business network, a practice I had never experienced in France. We discovered the practice and usefulness of nurturing a professional network, a “professional tribe” at least for the close network (direct connection).

Once we moved to San Francisco, our new tribe of friends started with the community of the Lycee Français de San Francisco, expanded via my involvement in the french theater company, la D-Boussole. The members of this company became close friends. My spouse, Marion, built quickly a tribe o friends in San Francisco. She has a natural gift to connect with people so it’s always easier for her to build a tribe. Life was good but we needed more adventure so we moved to Vietnam.

In Saigon, a new tribe as formed with great friends sharing experiences, moments, typhoons, etc. Unfortunately we had to leave after just one year and go back to San Francisco. Not too bad but that meant leaving the opportunities of Saigon, its vibrant life and our newly built tribe. As with our previous we stay in contact and share moments from far away.

Finally we recently moved to Seattle and are just getting started building a new tribe in the Pacific North West. The beginnings promise that a great group of friends will grow here too. Let’s celebrate friendship and good wine!