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…
The Hidden Cost of Cheap Travel: Who Really Pays for Your €20 Flight?
That €20 flight? The real bill didn't vanish. It was just handed to someone else. From underpaid crew to subsidized runways to an atmosphere no one is compensating, cheap travel has hidden costs worth reckoning with. Discover who's actually footing the tab, and how to travel better without giving up affordability.
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.
Check In, Give Back: Fairbnb.coop
(5 minute read)
Imagine a booking platform where part of your fee funds the neighborhood you are visiting, at checkout. This look at Fairbnb.coop explains its co-op model, the 50% give-back to local projects, how to use it wisely, and the limits you still need to respect.
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.
An Honest Ranking of Europe’s Train Stations Based on Vibes, Snacks, and Mild Existential Dread
(6 minute read)
Train stations are Europe in fast forward: espresso as medicine, croissants in hand, your life flashing on the departures board. This totally unscientific ranking grades major hubs on vibes, snacks, and existential dread, with practical tips for planning connections and layovers.
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 Art of the Layover: How to Turn Airport Time Into Adventure
(7 minute read)
A layover is only misery if you treat it like limbo. This guide shows how to choose the right connection length, stash bags, clear immigration, and slip into the city for a meal, museum, or neighborhood walk. Turn dead time into a bonus destination.
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.
Travel Isn’t Neutral—And It Never Was
(10 minute read)
Travel is never just a vacation. Your passport, your spending, your photos, and your routes all carry weight. This essay reframes ethical tourism as curiosity and respect, offering practical questions to travel with eyes open, without killing the joy.
10 Rookie Travel Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them Like a Pro)
(6 minute read)
Even seasoned travelers make rookie mistakes. This list catches the common ones before they cost you time, money, or sanity, from overpacking and tight connections to bad SIM plans, restaurant traps, and ignoring local rules. Steal these simple fixes and travel like you have done it forever.
Slow Travel Is a Privilege—But It Might Be the Most Responsible Way to Explore
(10 minute read)
Slow travel is not just an aesthetic, it is a privilege. This essay unpacks who gets to travel slowly, why it can reduce harm, and how to adopt its principles even on limited time or budgets, from fewer bases to trains and local spending.
An Honest Ranking of European Airports, Based on Vibes and Chaos
(4 minute read)
Forget efficiency rankings. This unapologetically subjective list grades Europe’s biggest airports by vibes and emotional damage, from Zurich’s spa-like calm to CDG’s existential maze and Heathrow’s corporate purgatory. See where your usual hub lands, and plan your next connection accordingly.
Cruise Ships Suck.
(6 minute read)
Cruise ships emptied thousands of people into Split every day of our week there. They took photos, filled the tours, left their garbage, and sailed at four. Here is what they missed, why no operator is doing this responsibly, and why we won't plan around it.
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.
How to Actually Read a Review
(6 minute read)
The reviews said the hike was easy. It nearly cooked us. A working method from two people who plan trips for a living: why a 4.9 can be worthless, why a two-star can be a compliment, and where reviews stop working entirely.
An Incomplete and Biased Guide to French Toilets
(6 minute read)
What toilets in France actually cost, why Paris street toilets are free and fully accessible, what a squat toilet really demands of you, and why the staircase, not the fixture, is the real problem. Written by someone who lives 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.
Call Them. They Speak English.
(6 minute read)
Find it on the app, then leave the app. Google the hotel, book on their own site, or call them, because they speak English and it is a two-minute conversation. What we put clients in instead of Airbnb, why we still sometimes end up in an Ibis, and the one platform we are still watching.
Why We Broke Up With Airbnb
(7 minute read)
A flat in London with no kitchen, a client we moved out of a beautiful beach apartment in Marseille, and the reason neither story is really the point. Why two travel planners in France route around Airbnb on principle, why abstinence isn't the argument, and where we send people instead.
Can I Go?
(11 minute read)
Jonas's story, in his words. A conversion van in Texas, years in the back of band vans, an accidental career building sets for Broadway and the Rolling Stones, and the three words that kept opening doors: can I go? How a musician from Dallas ended up planning trips from a village in Burgundy.