Dear English-speaking readers, this page is an automatic Google translation from a post originally written in French. My apologies for the weird sentences and the funny mistakes that could have been generated during the process. If you can read French, the original and correct version can be found here:
Français Bubbles Underwater & Beyond is the blog where I tell about my travels and dives. I publish my underwater photos and videos, my land and underwater impressions. And advice, too, for those who, like me, travel to put their heads underwater and make bubbles with the fish ! Above all, I try to share my amazement at the beauty of this other world under the surface of the ocean, so fragile and unknown…
Bubbles Underwater & Beyond in a Nutshell
- Blog created in: 2006
- Author: Corinne Bourbeillon
- Topics: travel and scuba diving
- Destinations: most likely where the water is warm
Who Is Running This Blog?
My name is Corinne Bourbeillon. I live and work in Rennes, Brittany, France, where I am a journalist at the Internet desk of the daily newspaper and media group Ouest-France for l’édition du soir (the digital evening edition). Before that, I worked for various magazines and publishing houses in Paris. I was also a literary translator for several years (a total of fifteen English and American novels translated into French).
Travel blogger
I created this blog in 2006. Initially, a simple holiday hobby, to give news to my family and my friends during my travels and my dives at the end of the world. Since then, the hearing Bubbles Underwater & Beyond took a lot of scale! I thus became without realizing it "blogging trip and diving" ... But this blog is not my livelihood, although it allowed me to publish articles, reports and underwater photos in other media than the newspaper I work for. Note, moreover, that I always look better in the water than at the office.
Diver
My first bubbles under water go back to a holiday in Thailand, in 1999. A revelation! Every time I go back under the surface, it is a renewed happiness, immense, intense! I am often asked if I am a diving instructor, but not at all, I am a simple "recreational" diver! I have the level Rescue Diver + Deep Diver of the training Padi and more than 1,000 dives to date. Great chilly, I much prefer the warm seas to the waters of Brittany. My favorite spots? The archipelagos of the Indo-Pacific zone (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines) in the heart of the fabulous Coral Triangle. I dream of going further east in Oceania and the Pacific.
Underwater Photographer
I never cease to be amazed by the beauty of the ocean and underwater photography has become my great passion. I started in 2005, as a self-taught person, during my trips in Southeast Asia, with a small compact digital camera. In 2010, I switched to a DSLR, the Canon Eos 7D, that I take underwater in a waterproof housing. It is now my faithful companion in all my dives!
→ My portfolio site [still under development]
Protect The Ocean
"We love what has amazed us, we protect what we love ..." This quote attributed to Cousteau sums up what should animate the divers tourists. Through my images and my reports underwater, I try to educate people about the beauty and fragility of the ocean, on which all life on Earth depends. 50% of the oxygen that we breathe comes from the ocean ... I say to myself that I am lucky to have been able to admire so many marine species in their natural environment, that it may not be the case next generations. In the space of a few years, I am already observing my modest scale of diving tourists, the impact of overfishing, pollution and global warming on the density of fish and the coral ecosystem. The impact of tourism, too. Which brings me back to my own contradictions in each of my distant travels. I am well aware of my excessive carbon footprint when I fly ...
Independent Traveler
I'm no longer the backpacker I was in my 20's, but I still organize most of my little expeditions on my own, without using the services of any travel agency or tour operator. I like my independence and the internet makes it easy. Usually, a few e-mails exchanges with the operations on-site are enough to hold my accommodation and diving bookings. And then, preparing a trip is already traveling…
My Breakaway Bubble
I publish articles on Bubbles Underwater & Beyond on my free time, without constraint, according to my inspiration, my desires, my destinations… This blog is my freedom bubble, my breakaway bubble! I enjoy sharing here my trips around the world, live or recorded. Having nice exchanges with those of you who leave me a comment. As I continue to blog between two trips, even under the drizzle in Brittany, a myth has arisen: people think I am a perpetual traveler. I love this idea and I maintain the myth.
Photos and Copyright
Unless otherwise indicated, I am the author of the photos published on Bubbles Underwater & Beyond. These images are not free of rights and it is forbidden to use them without my agreement. However, I authorize the use of an image for a mention or a short quotation, provided that my name, Corinne Bourbeillon, is on credit, with a link to the source. For any other request to use photos do not hesitate to contact me! corinne [at] pbda.fr
100 Dives of a Lifetime from National Geographic (2019). The cover photo, taken in the cenotes of Mexico, is signed by the great British photographer Alex Mustard.
Not a little proud of myself... My photo of Matt free diving in front of mantas has been published in this National Geographic book (2019).
Corinne has been to: Belgium, Canada, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Germany, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Spain, France, United Kingdom, Guernsey, Greece, Indonesia, Italy, Jersey, Cambodia, Laos, Morocco, Monaco, Maldives, Mexico, Malaysia, Netherlands, Norway, French Polynesia, Philippines, Portugal, Sweden, Singapore, Thailand, United States, Vietnam.
→ Get your own travel map from Matador Network