Slow traveling
What does it mean?
I can start with what it’s NOT: slow traveling is the opposite of taking an easy jet flight every other week to spend the weekend celebrating a bachelorette party in Barcelona or quickly visiting a capital city. No judgement there (well ok a little bit of judgement :P).
Instead, it’s:
taking your time to get to your destination
choosing the more eco-friendly mean of transportation
taking your time once you are there to explore and relax
MAKING TIME TO HAVE TIME because time is one of the most valuable thing we have!
I’ve always preferred that way of traveling: staying in one place for weeks or months and pretending I’m a local (which only worked until I opened my mouth)! I remember talking to a former work colleague from Japan. He went to Australia for 5 days (from Japan)! Believe it or not: he saw more things than I did when I was living there for a year! And I know it’s cultural and they don’t get much holidays, etc. and of course you might say it’s a total privilege to be able to stay somewhere for months and yes it totally is, and I’m beyond grateful! But also, we can choose the way we live our life much more than we think we are able to. There is always a(nother) way!
I’ve also always had this rule: when it takes 2 hours to get there: I sleep there minimum 1 night; 3 hours = min. 2 nights; 3 hours = min. 3 nights; etc. Because I find it quite exhausting to travel. It’s as if my body arrived but my soul stayed behind, do you know that feeling? It feels like being jet lagged while still being in the same time zone!
But TBH most of our recent holidays with my husband, have looked like the opposite of the rule I just described. It was more like: 14 hours = 7 nights and a lot of driving by car (when I still had one).
This Summer I chose to go back to the way I used to travel, meaning spend more time in 1 place again! Plus, since the pandemic enhanced my eco-friendly side, we chose to get there by train.
I will reveal the destination in a bit but first I wanted to talk about what inspired me for our trip.
There are a few different things that inspired me. Like I already wrote: the pandemic reinforced my ‘eco’ side which lead me to write a book about slow living (in the making), which made me want to travel in a more mindful way > slow travel. And the second thing that inspired me for our trip is the book The Salt Path from Raynor Winn that I read last winter. It’s the true story of an English couple hiking the South West Coast Path in Cornwall. And of course there is so much more to the story than that! I highly recommend reading it <3
So because of the book, the initial plan was to hike the South West Coast Path too! Plus having watched aaaaall the Harry Potters also last winter, I really felt drawn towards the U.K. and still am, but this year Bretagne won (again)! Because… Crêpes!
This is our Summer plan: take the train to Bretagne and hike the sentier des douaniers aka the GR 34 instead. Which is also a coastal path similar to Cornwall.
So far we only booked the train ticket and we will see how far we get everyday. We will mostly camp, which is interesting because if you watch the last stand-up I did on that exact topic - hiking and camping - one may think I hate those things! And it’s true I actually do!!! I think the book didn’t inspire me but brainwashed me! Sometimes - all the time- the picture we have in our heads is far better than reality…
But at least I know that Bretagne will be great because that region is beautiful! There is the ocean and the waves, the food is delish (okay that’s true in the whole country :P ), people are nice (apart from waiters, which is also normal in the whole country), the architecture, the cliffs, the sunset, the charm, the mood… I love it and so does my husband. It will be our 3rd time in Bretagne together. Apparently, we go there every two years. It’s not really something we decided at the beginning of our relationship, it just kind of happens! In fact, the first time we went to Bretagne, we celebrated our first year together and had (what I considered) a perfect day! And the whole day, I thought that he was going to propose! But that’s a whole other story!
One last thing.
While writing this post, I had a flash-back from when I was 6 years old. It was the Summer holidays and I went camping with my Grand-parents in the South of France. I believe it was close to the island of Porquerolles but I’m not entirely sure. It was definitely in a pine forest though, because I still remember the smell of those trees while completing the exercises of my Cahier de Vacances underneath them. I remember taking a boat to see some sea life. I remember the skirts with Provencal patterns (I even got one of them). I remember the card game nights in the caravan with them. And then I also remembered that my Grand-dad loooooved camping! He was an accountant and would save every penny throughout the year so that when his company would close during the Summer months, the family would take 6 weeks off to camp at the Sea and simply be!
So in the end, my Grand-parents were already into slow traveling! Dare I say that they invented it?! Allez why not?! It’s my blogpost after all!
I know that these days, slow traveling can seem like this hip hipster trend (and it is) but I truly think (and now I’m not joking anymore) that we need to come back to a slower way of living in general, for own well-being and incidentally for the well-being of the planet!
How could you make more time to have time (to travel or in your everyday life)?
Did you slow travel before?
What are your Summer plans?
