8 years ago by
I’ve just landed after a series of trips that were just as amazing as they were exhausting.
In only a month and a half, I went to Corsica, Croatia, Virginia, Hawaii, Japan, and finally Arizona and the Grand Canyon. Some of it was for work, some of it was vacation. It had been awhile since I’d been on a plane that much, and it had also been awhile since I’d felt so disconnected from everyday life. And that was both exciting and difficult at the same time.
Traveling is funny. When you put it that way, you might imagine some kind of jet set, glam, dream life. It’s so easy to only look at the perfect snapshots and to only talk about the Instagram moments, the palm trees, the wide open spaces, and drinking rosé on the patio. And I have nothing against relaxing palm tree trips, by the way.
But on the other hand, to me, a trip doesn’t mean much if I don’t come back feeling transformed somehow. Taken away from my habits and usual frame of reference, I’m suddenly more vulnerable – and when you’re face to face with your own vulnerability, that’s when change begins.
Transformations don’t necessarily have to be enormous, and each one can be a little bit different.
It might be going on vacation with people you love and seeing them in a way you never had before. I just got back from spending five days on a boat and let me tell you, there’s no better way to get to know someone. If you still love someone after five days on a boat, you’re going to love them for life!
It might be going away alone and opening yourself up completely to other people and new experiences.
It might be a catastrophic trip, where it rains all week when you were expecting sun, testing your patience, positivity, and ability to make all moments into good moments, even when nothing seems to be going your way.
It might be going to a place full of energy (for me, for example, Arizona is always a place that recharges my positive energy, I couldn’t tell you why, but it’s really special) and coming back full of new strength.
Sometimes it’s also an opportunity to experience disconnecting. Whether it’s because you’re in a totally different time zone (being in Japan means you’re awake when everyone is sleeping in New York) or it’s because you’re in a place that’s so remote, you don’t have a signal – I often found myself totally lost in translation, I couldn’t work, I couldn’t communicate with the Studio, and it really made me question the idea we have these days that you can “work and communicate wherever you are in the world.”
Some of the time, it was great to not have an internet connection. To wake up in the morning and not be able to check my Instagram or my email. And to realize how good it feels to be without those things, and how quickly you can forget those automatic habits and reconnect with life all around you.
But other times, it was hard.
Little by little, my team and I got frustrated when we couldn’t communicate. Sometimes, all I wanted was to go home and be able to spend quality time at the Studio working all together, and not just in little blips over Skype.
I learned to what extent nothing can replace real presence and real human contact, and it really made me want to come home and get back to work with my team. In fact, we’ve planned a little trip Upstate all together…
That’s probably what trips are for, actually. Discovering the world, discovering others and yourself, but most of all, finding within yourself the desire to come home…
Translated by Andrea Perdue
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partir pour mieux revenir…
i miss japan. but i’ll visit during the autumn. i think it’s a better time! :)
http://littleaesthete.com
The real Journey is the journey to the center of self….you can go far.. you can meet different civilization ,,different culture…but it all goes back to your inner journey… “Travel is not defined by the miles you cover”
From The World With Love
Yael Guetta
http://www.ftwwl.com
Je partage complètement ton point de vue. Découvrir, s’ouvrir, s’enrichir, se connaître mieux, et apprécier le retour à la maison quand on a grandi un peu.
Quand même, que de beaux voyages!
Mille fois raisons.
J’ai besoin chaque année de l’énergie de la mer quand je reste des heures dans l’eau à mater les poissons. J’ai identifié ce besoin tout nouveau et je ne peux m’en passer chaque été. Pas bronzer, pas la place, regarder le fond de l’eau et observer un autre univers, la vie des poissons, tranquillement avec mon masque et tuba.
Being a tourist means “go back home then”
Being a traveller means “never go back home then”
This is the differnce…
Love this post! Travel I think, is the only universal way to look outside of yourself, your prejudices and misconceptions about people. Because after all, we’re all the same: human beings. We love to live, laugh and belong. Fabulous post. x
Partir pour mieux revenir…c’est souvent vrai!
Ma peur moi, serait justement de partir trop longtemps et de ne plus pouvoir faire le chemin inverse, d’être comme coincée entre les deux…
Pauline
http://www.thevoyageur.net
J’aime cet édito. Il fait tellement sens en cette période, où tout le monde revient de quelque part, va quelque part ou alors prépare son départ en vacances… On rêve souvent les voyages avant d’y être, on devine qu’on va appuyer sur “pause” d’une part mais une partie de nous espère que ça sera aussi un petit (ou grand) “reset” d’autres parts. Ça a été beaucoup mon cas cette année, à planifier notre voyage à Bali: 2 semaines de rêve, choisir le bon hôtel, laisser la place au spontané, mais pas trop… Et là j’y suis depuis 5 jours et je stresse déjà à l’idée du retour. Comme si on pouvait soit anticiper l’avant, être nostalgique du passé mais ne jamais vraiment être dans le présent…
Mais une chose est sûre: j’aimerais moi aussi avoir ce manque d’une équipe sur place, d’un travail qui me rendrait frustrée de ne pas pouvoir communiquer avec mes collègues/assistants/boss… Et je realise finalement que, mes voyages sont aussi là pour ça: sortir du speed de mon quotidien, et essayer de faire le point sur ce que je veux vraiment. En tout cas, j’essaie entre 2 massages ou balades à vélo :)))
Xx, from Ubud,
Ann-Louise
vacation is always needed but I agree after a while you just wanna go home and get back to work!
http://hashtagliz.com
That’s so beautiful said and so true! <3
Love this! And it’s so true. I love that feeling of leaving the familiar. Like you said, it forces you outside of your daily habits and even your daily ways of thinking. It is exciting at first and then at some point you long for home again. Sometimes I feel like that’s all we’re really searching for is home again, whatever that means to each person. I feel like travel is suppose to make you do that. Appreciate the world and all it’s diversity and appreciate the familiarity of home. Great great post! And those pictures on IG of Lake Powell and the Grand Canyon are just stunning. Lake Powell has such a larger than life feeling to it. So beautiful! xo
Les voyages et le voyage intérieur, pour moi c’est indissociable. Je comprends tellement ce que tu veux dire quand tu évoques l’Arizona… superbe post Garance <3
Beautiful post. That is why I love so much long trips. Whether we like it or not they make us confront our life’s journeys. Some well known to us, others – waiting to be discovered.
Se ressourcer dans plusieurs contrées pour mieux affronter au retour la réalité…
Aaaaah Garance… Bah tu vois lire des choses comme ça me fait penser que si on me posait la question conne : “qui inviterais-tu à ton dîner idéal?”, ça serait pas le Dalaï Lama ou Matthew McConaughey (!), mais Garance Doré quoi !
Merci <3
So true…I’ve just returned from a two weeks trip from Paris and it was both exhilarating and frustrating time…I found in myself layers of aggression (like when I run a pickpocket out of the train) as well as patience (when I explained time and again to one of employees back home the same instructions) but mostly so, so much love for my family with whom we were traveling. We never laughed that much. At the end of these two weeks I was missing London but I returned feeling even more connected to my loved ones.
Ana
http://www.champagnegirlsabouttown.co.uk
Travelling is so wonderful; you look at everything with fresh eyes.
I have always loved Anne Morrow Lindbergh for her travel writing (not the tabloid/political aspect of her life). Even before she married, she wrote with such great detail, in exquisite language, of her travel impressions.
This is an excerpt from August 1926, in her book of diaries and letters, Bring Me a Unicorn, on a family trip to France:
“We left Mont-Saint-Michel in the sunshine. In color, the roofs were a blue I hadn’t noticed before, a deep sea blue, and gleamed like scales of a fish. The sky was blue behind. Green clambered up the sheer clifflike walls–a little turret to the left by the sea, the blue of the sky reflected in the water and the sand. We passed many people going to church, in black, on foot or in little carts. Old men in smocks, women with black kerchiefs and their caps on their heads. One thing I remember, a man getting off his bicycle to bend over and kiss on both cheeks a little golden-haired child.”
I’ve just returned from 8 weeks in Europe and am still realising what I discovered. Gotta say though that the routine and reality take a little getting used to after all the time zones and plane rides.
http://www.lapelsandloafers.com
” Voyager c’est aller de soi à soi en passant par les autres “
Gorgeous destinations! It must have been an exhilarating adventure!
http://fashion-soup.com
Heureux qui comme Ulysse a fait un long voyage…
Yes, have you seen that Expedia commercial about traveling alone? Called “No Excuses”? It captures being in your twenties and the adventure of life and travel perfectly. If you haven’t seen it, google it. You will love it.
Allie of ALLIENYC
allienyc.com
When I got married my best friends were terrified for me because my fiancé and I didn’t live together beforehand. I knew we would be fine because we had travelled a lot. Best way to know ourselves and each other. Eleven years later we are still travelling and still growing together and still madly in love.
Comme dit un poète (Orelsan) : “Au fond, je crois que la terre est ronde pour une seule bonne raison, après avoir fait le tour du monde, tout ce qu’on veut c’est être à la maison”
j’ai ni des temps ni des ressources pour le vacance cette année et je veux PLEURER :((
On ne peut plus d’accord avec toi sur ce point Garance! Rien ne vaut les voyages pour apprécier ce que l’on a à la maison! ;)
Et ce sais de quoi je parle en ce moment, je t’ai envoyé un mail à ce propos! Bises Garance!
???
Jeanne
http://www.fashionmusingsdiary.com
Well said Garance! I agree with everything. How was Croatia, my country. Did you like it?