• Patrick Baud, alias Axolot on YouTube, launched in 2014 his video format “Etranges Escales” in which he highlights the original places of a city in the world and its curiosities.

  • In March, he launched a participatory kitty to carry out a new season of his concept across France.

  • Filming for this season will begin at the end of May in Nice and will cross Strasbourg, Nantes and Lyon.

    Unpublished guests such as YouTuber Cyprien, Alexandre Astier or Bigflo Oli will come to honor the heritage and cultural wealth of their city.

“My goal when traveling is to be amazed, amazed, surprised…” During a trip to New York and then to London in 2014, Patrick Baud decides to film the curiosities that abound in the two cities. Passionate about culture and discovery, he shares in an improvised way, the result of his excursions on YouTube where he takes the pseudonym of Axolot. “After these two videos, I received a lot of messages asking me if there would be other episodes,” he tells us. The videographer then imagines

Etranges Escales

 : a format in which he explores a city in the world, different in each episode, and highlights its history and its original places.

A first season of the concept, filmed by a professional team and funded through a participatory prize pool, saw the light of day in 2017 and was a great success.

For this adventurer of curiosity, there is no question of stopping in such a good way.

Alexandre Astier, Bigflo and Oli as guides

But, pandemic obliges, Patrick Baud tries to adapt his concept and reflects on a 100% French season: “Beyond the geographical choice related to the health situation, I said to myself that it was the occasion or never for the French people to rediscover their country and make them want to travel while remaining on the territory.

At the beginning of March, he launched a new participatory pot.

A month later, it is with more than 100,000 euros collected that Patrick Baud is preparing to survey mainland France.

From Nice via Nantes, he selects with precision the six cities and the twelve places that will make up his route.

Unlike previous videos filmed abroad, these

Strange

 National

Stopovers

will be enhanced by testimonials from local speakers (museum directors, city specialists, etc.) as well as personalities linked to their destinations.

Alexandre Astier should thus tell the mysterious story of a network of undergrounds in Lyon and Bigflo and Oli present the curiosities of Toulouse.

Tourism in times of pandemic

Museums, cultural places… There are many sites suffering from the health situation.

So much so that Patrick Baud is solicited by cities wishing to promote their heritage.

"The museums of Strasbourg, for example, have offered to open, just for us, their reserves inaccessible to the general public", explains the videographer.

In 2017, already, he had put online a special episode devoted to the unusual places of Vaucluse, where he is from.

“Oddly, the episode worked better than those in New York and London,” he is surprised.

We received a lot of messages from people who managed some of the places we visited in the video telling us that the number of tourists had increased.

"

Patrick Baud also regularly receives photos from guest books from all over the world in which French-speaking tourists do not hesitate to mention his 

Etranges Escales

. "We hope that this season in France will have as much impact and we will be happy to be able to help improve the situation of people who make a living from tourism in these cities in times of health crisis," says the youtubeur.

Its cultural exploration of France should begin at the end of May in Nice.

Yououtubeur Cyprien has given his consent to appear there.

In parallel with the filming, Patrick Baud will continue his search for curiosities, particularly on the

Twitch

platform 

- where he regularly organizes “Strange Stopovers at home” - and will share his knowledge in a book,

France Secrète

, to be published soon.

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  • Lyon

  • Nice

  • Unusual

  • Youtube

  • Trip

  • Culture

  • Heritage