The Blog
Like the way we think about travel?
This is where we work it out: routes and rhythms, the ethics of a cheap flight, the right way to miss a train. If it lands, Mise en Place is the same voice once a month, and the My Life in Burgundy waitlist is open.
Browse our articles…
Prime Parking: Europe's Best Parks for Picnics and People-Watching
(7 minute read)
A great park is more than grass and a bench. From grand city gardens to hidden local favorites, this guide rounds up Europe’s best spots for picnics, people-watching, and doing absolutely nothing. Pack snacks, claim a patch of shade, and let the continent entertain you.
Museum Audio Guides: A Field Guide to the Voices, the Drama, and the Unexpected ASMR
(7 minute read)
Museum audio guides can be brilliant, theatrical, soothing, or accidentally hypnotic. This playful field guide decodes the narrator archetypes, explains why some tracks deepen what you see, and shows how to avoid turning a great museum into an exhausted blur.
La Dolce Vita Isn’t a Vacation—It’s a Practice
(6 minute read)
La dolce vita is not a mood board or an itinerary flex. It is daily rituals: espresso at the bar, slow lunches, evening passeggiate, and noticing beauty on purpose. Learn how to travel Italy with attention, and bring the sweet life home.
Why Travel Makes You Feel More Like Yourself
(9 minute read)
Travel scrambles your routines, and somehow you come back clearer. This essay explores why new places amplify personality, from micro-bravery and sensory overload to solitude and chance connection. If you have ever felt more you on the road, this will hit.
The Weirdest Museums in Europe—and Why You Should Actually Go
(6 minute read)
Forget the Louvre for a day. Europe’s strangest museums celebrate hair, toilets, failed inventions, sausages, and more, and they are oddly brilliant at explaining a place. This roundup makes the case for weird culture as the fastest route to memorable travel stories.
Untranslatable European Words That Say It All
(6 minute read)
Some European words do not translate, they unlock a way of living. From flâner and saudade to sobremesa, lagom, and Finland’s kalsarikännit, this list turns vocabulary into travel advice, showing how to wander slower, linger longer, and feel more alive.
10 Reasons You Should Never Go Abroad (Unless You Like Joy)
(10 minute read)
Consider this your warning label. Abroad may cause sudden joy: street aperitivo, accidental friendships, languages you butcher proudly, and a suspicious addiction to trains and pastries. In ten “reasons,” this playful rant argues travel is inconvenient, transformative, and absolutely worth it.
The Best Times to Visit Paris Museums: A Day-by-Day Guide
(6 minute read)
Want quieter galleries and shorter lines in Paris? This day-by-day museum guide shows when crowds spike, when locals go, and how to plan around closures and late nights. Use it to time your visits for calmer rooms, better photos, and more art per hour.
A Totally Subjective Guide to European Pastries That Could Ruin You (In a Good Way)
(6 minute read)
Some pastries do not just taste good, they rewire your standards. From a properly bronzed French croissant to pastel de nata crackle, cardamom buns, Sicilian cannoli, and Vienna’s Sachertorte, this biased guide shows what to order, when to eat, and how to avoid tourist traps.
Decoding Europe: A Field Guide to North vs. South
(10 minute read)
From Finland to Spain, Europe’s contrasts run deeper than weather. This field guide decodes North vs South rhythms: punctuality and rules versus flexibility and flow, direct talk versus expressive warmth, fuel versus feast. Learn to read the room and travel like a good guest.
The Bavarian Castle Where Your Stay Stays Local – Schloss Blumenthal
(7 minute read)
Stay in a Bavarian castle where your euros circulate locally, not into a distant headquarters. Schloss Blumenthal blends a small hotel with an organic farm and dairy, bio restaurant and beer garden, plus workshops and festivals. Here, you join a community, not a fantasy.
How to Eat Well in Europe on a Budget
You can eat brilliantly in Europe without blowing your budget. This guide shows how to shop markets, follow lunch menus, embrace bakeries and street food, picnic in parks, and avoid tourist traps. Spend less on mediocre meals, more on unforgettable bites.
The Ground Rules: Europe’s Coffee Culture
(4 minute read)
Coffee in Europe is a ritual with rules. Learn when cappuccino becomes taboo, how to order like a local, and why fika, café terraces, and Viennese coffeehouses slow time. A quick tour of the continent’s coffee personalities, with practical etiquette you can use tomorrow.
Where to Stay in London by Neighborhood (and Why It Matters)
(8 minute read)
London isn’t one city so much as a constellation of neighborhoods. This guide helps you choose a base that matches your style, from Covent Garden convenience to Shoreditch creativity and Kensington calm, so you commute less, sleep better, and feel the city’s rhythm.
Marseille’s Best Views? Only Available After 10,000 Steps
(7 minute read)
Marseille’s Calanques look like postcards, but you earn them. Jonas Martin recounts the treasure hunt for hidden trailheads, summer access rules, and a knee-busting descent to crystalline inlets, followed by the brutal climb back. Sweat, saltwater, and a post-hike rosé await.
You Will Never Blend In
(7 minute read)
You will be spotted in your first sentence, and it costs you nothing. What actually matters: the bonjour rule, when la bise happens (rarely, to travelers), the single principle behind cutting cheese, and why the French correct you with their face.
Take the Blue Bike
(6 minute read)
Three days and sixty kilometers on a Vélib'. What the passes actually cost in 2026, why the electric bike is the whole point, the per-trip minutes trap that catches everyone, and what a backwards saddle is trying to tell you. From people who live here.
The Corsica Trip We'd Never Plan for You
(17 minute read)
August 2022: an overnight ferry we were too cheap to sleep on, a village festival we found on a wall, and a hike we began at 11:30 in August. The founding trip of our agency, and why we'd redo half of it.
Knead to Know: Somebody Has to Get the Bread
(7 minute read)
There are no shops in our village, so somebody drives to the boulangerie every morning, and it is usually me. Two years of getting it wrong: the salt-free Italian loaf, the Thursday closure I never remember, the tradition versus the ordinary baguette, and the flour sack that feeds horses.
The Best Thing We Ever Did in Paris Was Have No Plan
(7 minute read)
Two travel planners argue against the Paris itinerary. Aimless walking that takes twenty minutes to stop feeling like a waste, the café as a pause rather than a destination, and the night a shopkeeper in the 20th locked up at midnight and took us dancing. Plus what spontaneity costs.