Oui Oui Paris + Our Travel Secret
People are known for all sorts of things that they love. I have a girlfriend who is an avid reader and every time I see her I'm always asking what she is currently diving in to. We have another friend who is set on golfing the countries greatest courses. When we see him there are some automatic conversation starters. "How's your golf game?," and two, "What's your latest course that you've played?" For us, the thing that we love to do is travel. Now just as I'm asking my friends about their hobby-loves, we are constantly being asked the questions: "Weren't y'all just somewhere in the world?," or "Where are you going on your next trip?!" Which I love! The best part is when others who are traveling come to my husband and I for advice. Usually I end up shoving my husband forward and saying, "Uh, he's MUCH better at this than I am. He can help you." Which is 1000% true.
Before I married my husband I had never even been outside of the US. Our honeymoon was my first international travel experience, and after that I was hooked. My husband being the avid traveler his entire life, changed a lot of my perspective on what I thought you had to do to travel anywhere really. After 4 years of marriage we have visited 9 countries and still are counting. For all of the places in the world that we would still like to visit, Paris has just never been on our list. I know...I know. But it's PARRRRIIISSSSS. I hear you, but we just aren't into incredibly touristy places.
Everyone has their one place in the world that is their dream destination. The place they think they would almost never get to outside of their own fantasies. For me, my number one travel wish/bucket list destination was India. Specifically visiting the Taj Mahal. I had dreamt of visiting India since I was a little girl and my only recollection of the Taj Mahal was photos I had found in our huge encyclopedia collection. Oh and I think on some episode of The Animaniacs they might have visited there as well. I know...random.
And then there is Paris. Probably the number one travel destination wish for most Americans, and up there on that top ten list of places to go before you die. I had seen the Taj Mahal people! I had reached the pinnacle of all of my travel dreams! I didn't need to go anywhere else! While my husband is down to go anywhere in the world, we had made our minds up about Paris. We would only go under 2 circumstances:
1) If someone else was paying for it. Ha Yeah, right!
2) If we ever found ridiculously cheap tickets.
2) If we ever found ridiculously cheap tickets.
Being that the rest of this blog features our pictures from Paris, I'm sure you're realizing that we either have REALLY rich friends, or that we found cheap tickets.
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For most people planning a trip anywhere can seem like an ordeal. Some use travel packages and tour companies; others use a travel agent. I've also recently heard amazing things about Groupon Travel. People view travel this way:
1) Pick where you want to go
2) Set a date
3) Book your plane tickets/hotels/etc.
4) Travel
1 and 2 are sometimes interchangeable. Oh and somewhere in there is that whole ask off for vacation from work, or find a babysitter, or make extra plans if traveling with children.
Here's the simple way we travel. Instead of setting a date and destination FIRST... we do that last. If you are dedicated to traveling at a low cost, and your job is flexible enough, there is unique opportunity to plan for travel. Currently my husband is self employed and I have been at a wonderful job for the past 5 years where I have great PTO flexibility, and a considerable amount of vacation time due to the time that I have dedicated to the organization. With those 2 elements in play we can easily book a vacation whenever we want.
Secondly, we never decide where we are going. Here's our secret: we let Trip Advisor tell us. In order to execute the "Gaspard Way of Travel" you must first create a Trip Advisor account. Trip Advisor is a wonderful website/app used for anyone going anywhere. Whether it's a restaurant across town, or Bali. Trip Advisor has tons of awesome members who can tell you the best places to go in the world. The feature that we most frequently use is the Trip Alerts. Start by creating a TON of Trip Alerts for everywhere in the world that you would like to visit. I mean...EVERY PLACE you have ever dreamed of going. After this is completed, Trip Advisor will sent you weekly or monthly emails when prices on airline tickets drop.
Now I know, that sounds a little too easy, but honestly it is. I completely understand that it may not work this easy for everyone with other elements at play in their life, but for us this is what works. If you can let go of setting a destination or a time to travel and you just make a decision to go when it's cheap then your perspective on travel with change. March in Paris is still pretty cold. The weather was a little chilly, but hey, we didn't mind, we were seeing Paris and didn't have to deal with a ton of tourists. I used to think that you had to go to excessive lengths just to book a vacation, but really it can be very easy. I will let my husband contribute to the blog on his perspective and specific ways of planning a multi-country/city tour later on. I will also save our hotel advice for a later blog so you can look through our Paris trip. Enjoy!
Inside Notre Dame
Streets of Montmartre & The Eiffel Tower
Courtyard at The Louvre and Musee d'Orsay
Top of The Eiffel Tower and Galleries Lafayette
The Eiffel Tower and Husband
Enterance at The Louvre
The Louvre
Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles
We of course had to seal our Paris trip with a kiss by placing our lock on the bridge. Since our visit, they have since decided to remove these due to the weight of the locks weighing down the bridge. Until next time Paris.
Au Revoir.
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