“At least it’s Paris we’re going back to…” I sighed to my husband and daughter as we packed up to leave Mallorca, where we’d been blissfully untethered from reality for the last 10 days.
“Because Paris is the best city in the world, right mama?” My four-year-old grinned up at me with this aphorism that she and I had begun saying to each other about a year before.
Still, this first holiday together as a family of four had been a much-needed respite and we were all a little blue to be headed back to real life. In fact, to a new life we needed to figure out—school would start the following week, the same week my maternity leave was to end, and with no childcare lined up for our three-month-old.
How to navigate life as a family of two kids with two working parents…?
I felt a little overwhelmed and anxiety was already settling in.
It didn’t last long, though. As soon as we got to Paris, I felt the relief I always have coming home to the City of Light.
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The feeling isn’t just relief but also wonder…
Because what I experience is not just a feeling of coming home… it’s mingled with the feeling you get when traveling and finding yourself in a favorite location overseas…
Because, of course, Paris is only my adopted home. I’m not French, but I am established enough here to feel that it’s all familiar when I return.
I am still a foreigner, though, and I still fully appreciate all the reasons I chose to live in Paris.
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If the feeling hits me in the taxi, it’s usually the architecture that hooks me once again. The sheer beauty of this city, its river, and everything it has to offer, the feeling of endless potential… it all sends me into reveries of gratitude.
If it hits me when I’m on an errand, it’s the Parisian lifestyle that puts a goofy smile on my face…
The beauty of being able to walk to everything I need… the feeling of being embraced by my little community, as shopkeeps and café owners who recognize me nod in greeting… walking by and sniffing the delicious aromas coming from the fromagerie and the boulangerie (and being tempted to stop in for a quick purchase)… the clinking of silverware from people eating at little tables on the sidewalk, the beautifully presented dishes they tuck into… running into a good friend and her family, stopping for a chat, setting up a date with our families for the following weekend…
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(And here I’m not waxing poetic… these were all encounters I had in the first 24 hours after returning from Spain.)
I’ve struggled with how to describe this feeling, and the closest I can think to say it is that it feels like I’m coming home to vacation.
It’s the best of being at home and the best of being on holiday all at once.
And I think that’s how many happy expats would describe the experience of finding that perfect place to call home.
The feeling hits me like clockwork after every absence, and I am launched into renewed appreciation for my life choices—specifically, those that led me to settle in the City of Light.
The funny thing is, though, that a big part of why I choose to live in Paris is for the ability to leave it.
I love being at the center of Europe, in one of its best-connected hubs, to be able to fly or train anywhere on the Continent (or just off its shores) in three hours or less. The direct flight to Mallorca was a quick two hours, perfect for our first airborne adventure with a newborn and a toddler.
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Luckily for me, traveling is a part of my job description, and I get to do it just about every month, whether a quick train ride nearby for the weekend or to other countries entirely.
I’m delighted to be able to return to Spain in a few days for our Live And Invest in Spain Conference in Valencia…
I plan a trip this autumn to Toulouse, a couple hours south of Paris, to research an upcoming issue…
And there will be plenty of Europe travel in my future as we launch our newest publication next month, Europe Uncovered (watch this space!)…
Once you get beyond the U.S. or Canadian border, you might be shocked to find how quickly, affordably, and easily you can visit new places (or old favorites).
Many of the trips I took last year or have planned for this year are mere weekends. They are but an hour or two away by train or plane. They cost just a couple hundred round trip.
How fabulous to be able to visit them—even for short periods—whenever the fancy strikes?
If this sounds like your kind of lifestyle, there’s no better place to base yourself than in a travel hub…
If this is a goal of yours, there’s no better place to be than Paris, London, Barcelona, Milan, Amsterdam, or Rome, some of the best-connected cities in the world.
If you’re looking for more travel and diversity, there’s no better way to bring this to your life than to make a move overseas.
And if you’re looking for feelings of wonder, awe, gratitude, and appreciation in your daily life, I prescribe the same.
Finding your own “vacation-at-home” location, as I’m calling it, is the best way to keep all those feelings in the fore each and every day, without even trying.
Bonne route,
Kat Kalashian
Editor, In Focus: Europe
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