The father of a childhood friend told me one day:

“I prefer to trust someone and be betrayed than not to trust and leave a good person in need.”

It took me a long time to understand that. But here are three experiences that have restored my faith in humanity.

AirBnB and the German family

I lived in a big shared falt. One of my flatmates had the idea to put his room on AirBnB when he was not there. I was really a fan of the AirBnB mindset (at the beginning), so I accepted, even if I found that opening ourdoor to strangers was dangerous.

Our first guests were a German woman and her teenage daughter. I was suspicious at the beginning of their stay, but from the second day I realized that I could trust them.

On their last day, something happened. The woman had her wallet stolen in a bus (unfortunately common in Paris), and had no money to pay for transport to the airport. She kindly asked me to lend her money, saying that she would give me a refund by Paypal.

I did not want to give him money, even 20 €, because I thought it could be a scam.

Then I saw that her daughter was sad, and I asked why. She replied that they had kept the visit of Notre-Dame de Paris for the last day, and that her daughter had always wanted to see the cathedral. But with the mishap they would have to go straight to the airport.

At that moment, I decided to trust her, and I did not give her 20 €, but 40: enough to take a taxi to Notre Dame, enjoy this marvel, then take the transport to the airport on time.

Three days later, I received an email: I had received a transfer of 40 € on Paypal and a word of thanks.

What a relief to remember that we have the right to trust people!

Couchsurfing in Central Asia

In 2017, I made a big trip to Central Asia with my girlfriend and two friends. At one point, we separated: they went directly to Kyrgyzstan, and I stayed an extra week in Uzbekistan to explore the Ferghana Valley.

In one of my steps, Kokand, I decided to try for the first time a site (or rather, a community) that friends had advised me: Couchsurfing.

I then got in touch on the site with an Uzbek, Bathiyor, English teacher, who invited me to stay in his family for two days. I was a little afraid, because I dreaded the barrier of culture, a misunderstanding, even a scam (like a fake profile, theft of my bag).

It was without counting on the fabulous hospitality of the Uzbeks, and Bathiyor and his family in particular. In the end, the 2 days in Kokand were the best part of the trip, and a year later we are still talking on Telegram. His entire family adopted me, even his young son who called me “Aka” (which means “brother”) !

A young refugee for a night

On a frosty Friday night in March, I was going home from the pub. I was pretty drunk, had a good evening.

At 20m from my building, an Indian-looking young man stops me and asks me if I know where are the Pakistani refugees in the neighborhood. What you should know is that in my neighborhood of La Chapelle in Paris, there are sometimes 50 refugees sleeping outside.

So we asked the refugees who were there, but they told us that they came from Africa, that some Pakistanis lived further away, at Porte de la Chapelle.
I realized that Porte de la Chapelle was at a 15 minutes walk, it was very cold, and that the young man looked honest.

So, I did something I would never have done if I had not been drunk: I invited him to spend the night on the couch. What he accepted.

Thus, a young man I did not know spent the night in my living room, where there was my laptop, my girlfriend’s laptop, my tablet, my checkbook … And nothing happened.

The morning after, we had coffee and we spoke in English and German.

Mohamed comes from Pakistan and is 16 years old. Since then, we have stayed in touch, he is in a cooking school, and he has learned very well French.

We need to put trust back in our lives

Shared trust is one of the most beautiful things.

That’s why I became host on Couchsurfing, to give back to the community what I received in Central Asia.

Trust is also essential in the project I started with a friend. It is a community that aims to create meetings between travellers who come to Paris and Parisians. To talk, to exchange, to live a truly local experience, far from the tourists. It’s called Welcom ‘to Paris. We will do everything for members to trust each other and to earn their trust.

(If you want to learn a little more about it, here is a story.)

Thank you for reading and I wish you a lot of trust in your life!

From Paris with hope,

JB

English is not my first language, please tell me if you find a typo or something unclear.

If you have a feedback about this story, I would like to read it ! And thank you for clapping if you think it’s worth a read.

For 3 years, I started to really be a traveller. Not a full-time traveller or a “digital nomad”, but someone who makes a great trip (around 3 weeks) and several weekends abroad a year. To make the most of it, I developed a method of preparation that has a definite advantage: when you spend 4 ou 6 months preparing a trip, it’s almost as if you were travelling during this time.

And when you finally get at the destination, it feels like… Coming home.

So I share this method, hoping it can be useful to you.

My goal is to live trips that make sense

My favorite kind of travel is experience travel. I wrote a story about that (Why I chose experience travel). The point is, I have the chance to travel often, so I want to make the most it. I don’t chose a destination because it is cheap, or trendy, or a “must” (there are no “must” in travel, only options). I chose because I’m genuinely interested in the place and the people, and I want to learn, to meet people, to be amazed, to feel, to taste, to experience.

To be able to live this kind of trips requires 3 things : respect, curiosity, and effort.

Respect is the base : never consider (especially if you are a Westerner like me, or very rich) that you own the world and that your culture is superior. Be openminded and respectful (something that French tourists are really bad at).

Curiosity and effort are needed to prepare your trip.

(If you want to read more about this traveller mindset, here is the story.)

Your steps are :
1) Select a destination ;
2) Chose dates and buy flight tickets ;
3) Take more informations ;
4) Draft a general route and book accomodation ;
5) Learn a bit of the language ;
6) Bonus : try to find people to meet.

Select your destination

My personnal habit is to keep a list. Everytime I read or hear something about an interesting place, I write it on my list. For that, it is really inspiring to follow some good travel bloggers that are really curious and go off the beatten paths. Then, when the travel bug tickles me, I read the list and I search informations about the places.

If a destination seems appealling for my girlfriend and I, I begin to search more general informations, like : best time of the year to go, importance of tourism (sometimes, amazing places are destroyed by tourism, like Greek islands, so it’s not worth it to go), security, prices and the mainstream points of interest.

Do that until you find a destination that matches your interests, your dates and your budget. When you find it, go !

Book your flight tickets, or train tickets, or whatever

Important point : air traffic is the most polluting mode of transportation, so if you can limit flights, do it. I personnally love travelling by train, when it is possible (mainly when we take a trip in Europa).

Is it really needed to say that the sooner you book your tickets, the cheaper they will be ? We usually book them at least 4 months in advance.

Take more informations

This is the long and low-intensity part. You now have several months to read things, watch videos, ask questions before you go.

My tip is to spend a couple hours a week to do that.

The goal is not to learn everything about the destination, but to become familiar with it, and to find really interesting things to do to put them in a route.

You can start with :

• Wikipédia : fabulous source to know the history and present of the place ;
• Good travel guides like Le Routard (my favorite) to find useful tips ;
• International news website.

Then you dig deeper, to find more interesting points of interests. You can use :

• Travel blogs (or Medium), to get a more personal (or even local) point of view ;
• Forums like Quora ;
• Videos : travel vlogs on YouTube, local music, or even documentaries about the place. Before going to Berlin, I found a 3-parts documentary comparing Paris (my city) to Berlin, their history, urbanism and present. It was perfect !
• History books or novels : before taking a trip to Uzbekistan, I read a fabulous book on the history of the region called “The Great Game” (by Peter Hopkirk). It made me dream of Central Asia for a year before going !

And there are many other ways you can use to get familiar to the place and take infos. I write it one more time : never believe the “must-do”, “must-see” lists ! Nothing is a must, except being respectful.

Once you have all this knowledge, write a list of all the things you would like to do, see, experience, taste, all the places you would like to go.

Now, draft a general route and book accomodations

Everyone has their own way of planning a trip itinerary. From “I plan everything hour by hour” to “I just book accomodations and let’s see”.

My choice is between the two : I plan a general route, then I book the hotels, and I keep a list of interesting things, day by day. I know that a tight schedule is stressful and sometimes deceiving, so I plan one, two or three things to do on a day, and keep a lot of free time to just wander, meet people, relax, or to decide to do something we will spot on the day.

Here is an example : on the left, the general planning (with the accomodations booked), on the right, a list of points of interests, activities and restaurants / bars (from our Costa Rica trip in January / February 2018)

The rule is : only book in advance what should be booked in advance.

Like : hostels, rental car (if you need one), some particular activities (like the visit of a particular national park, for us).

No need to book in advance things like museums, restaurants, surf lessons, natural parks, etc.

You can also save all your POI in an app, to find them easily when you are there. I use Maps.me, a free mapping app that works offline (with OpenStreetMaps) and allows you to pin places :

At this point, you should still have something like 8 to 6 weeks before going.

Learn a bit of the language

It is sure that sometimes the language gap is very difficult. It is tempting to say “but it’s good, I speak English”.

The thing is, speaking just a few words can completely change a situation or the attitude of the people you are talking to. It is a proof of respect to have learned a little of their language.

Make a test in Paris : try to talk to a Parisian beginning with “Hello”. He or she won’t even stop. But if you start with “Bonjour”, he/she will likely stop and help you, even in English.

I personnaly use the free app Duolinguo to learn (and language books sometimes). This is when I finished the Spanish course before going to Madrid :

Bonus : try to find people to meet !

This is obviously my favorite part. I believe that meeting people is often the highlight of a trip. And I mean meeting others travellers and meeting locals too.

In my opinion, the best website you can use for that is Couchsurfing. The initial purpose of Couchsurfing is to find hosts abroad, but you can also use it to ask questions and even meet locals.

Before our trip to Costa Rica, we hosted two lovely Ticas from San José, Mariana and Lil, when they spent 3 days in Paris :

They gave us a lot of tips about their country, and even invited us to meet them in them when we are in San José. Amazing experience !

This is only one method among another

I just wanted to share my way of planning a trip with you, hoping it will be helpful. What I really like in this method is that for months before the trip, you are already traveling mentally while doing the research !

Currently, I am already back in step 1, to prepare the big trip next year.

My best advice would be : try to meet people during your trip, it really feels amazing !

With a friend, we started a project to help travellers that come to our hometown, Paris :

The idea is simple : we created a small community of Parisian travel enthousiasts that are ready to share a moment with travellers, making them live a bit of the real local life. Far from the tourists, they experience the real Paris.

If you are interested about this project, take a look a our page and subscribe to our newsletter (once a month max, no spam) : https://www.welcom.city

Clap if you think that story is worth reading, comment if have a question, share if one of your friends needs to read that.

Travel safe, experience often !

JB

I read and reply to every comment on Medium, feel free to answer. (English is not my first language, if you find something badly written or unclear, please tell me.)

Oh, please note I don’t want to be judgemental. I write this story because the topic of “how to travel” has been in my head for a long time, and now that I have an answer, I share it. Maybe it will be helpful for some of the readers.

Before trying to define “experience travel”, let’s list some types of travels I tried, should we ?

Tourist travel

Or “being just a tourist”. What is it ? For me, it’s sticking to the touristic paths, not being really curious, or worse : not being respectful.

You eat in tourist restaurants, you buy tourist products. Sometimes you find yourself in a flood of tourists who submerge certain cities or monuments and museums.

At the end, you don’t immerse yourself in the local culture at all ; it feels like you just visit some theme park.

I’ve been this kind of tourist when I lived in Dublin for 10 weeks. I was working remotely so I had no contacts with Irish people. In 10 weeks, I met people for Brasil, Italy, Spain, Mongolia, France, but… No Irish people. And I really liked those people, and the museums and all, but I felt like I missed something.

“I did that” / “I’ve been here” travel

In my opinion, this is the absolute worse reason to take a trip.

Him : “Oh dear, did you do Berlin yet ? You should, it’s trendy, it’s a must !”
Me : “Just tell me, why did you go there ?”
Him : “It’s so trendy !”

Well, yeah, no, goodbye. Oh, and by the way, I wrote a story about why nobody should believe the “must-do’s”, “must-see’s” lists when they take a trip. When I read these kind of posts about Paris, I can say that it’s only touristic BS.

Nothing is a must when you travel, the only thing that matter is what you would like to visit, to learn, to experience.

And its cousin :

“Bucket list” travel

I understand that everyone can keep a list about the places that might be visited one day. I just have a problem with the name, “bucket”. So what, countries are just like beer caps you can collect and put in your bucket ?

This way of thinking sometimes leads to big mistakes, like this tattoo:

How does filling this map of the world have value ? Have you really taken the time to stop in each country mate, to learn, to meet people ?

And by the way, coming to Paris for one day doesn’t allow you to say “I’ve done France”. I wrote a story about the people that say things like “I’ve done 60 countries yet”.

Now I have a wishlist, a list where I write the places I might visit or the experiences I would like to live. Twice or thrice a year, I read the list, evaluate the points (taking infos, reading blogs and books, looking at the prices) and update it.

Cheap travel

This could be the peak of consumerism in the travel field. Since when “it’s cheap” is a good reason to travel ? Sometimes, you fancy to go somewhere, and you realize a trip there would be cheap, perfect. Sometimes, it is expensive, and you have to budget and save. Cheap is only a bonus, not a goal. (I should write a story about that too.)

I feel pretty sad for some travellers in meet in Paris that tell me they try to save on everything because they didn’t budget their trip well. So, they are in Paris, but they can’t afford to go to a museum, grab a beer on terrace, try some good French wine, taste some of our food… Half of the pleasure of their Parisian trip is wasted.

So what is “experience travel” ?

I’m not sure myself. I would say, it’s based on the experiences you live during your trip (wow, genius).

What is an experience ?

It’s more than an activity. It’s something that takes all your senses and your open mind. It’s something that makes you learn, leaves you a little bit of something inside your brain (learnings), your heart (memories), and the rest of your body (sensations). It’s something that is authentic, not simulated.

As an exemple, when I went to Costa Rica with my girlfriend last January, we had the chance to spend time with my friend Pouchi in San José. I met Pouchi the year before in Paris, when she wanted me to show here my favorite pieces of streetart in my neighborhood.

A year after, we landed in her hometown, San José, and she spent half a day with us, taking us to small local restaurants in Mercado Central, explaining us the food, then to her favorite parks and see streetart pieces again.

For me, this was an experience. It was more than an activity like following a guide or a “free walking tour”, more than read our guide book. Pouchi is a friend and made us experience her city. We saw, tasted, smelled, talked… It was an experience.

(Maybe someone will read this story and help me to define that better ?)

Anyway, this is the kind of experiences I always search when we take a trip. We had the chance to live that while meeting people in Berlin, Amsterdam, Madrid, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Costa Rica.

For us, it takes three elements to reach this “traveller” level. Those are curiosity (you have to search), respect (always !) and efforts (searching this kind of unique moments is uneasy). I wrote a story about that with a friend.

Oh, last thing. The word “experience” is already becoming mainstream. AirBnB is using it for their “hype tourist tours”, and a lot of other websites too. I would like to find another word, but until now “experience” is my favorite one.

And now ? I try to help other travellers that are searching for experiences

“When you get, give.” Is a motto a friend of mine gave me.

When I travel, I search to live genuine experiences with local people. So, with a friend, I started a project to help travellers that come to my city, Paris :

The idea is simple : we created a small community of Parisian travel enthousiasts that are ready to share a moment with travellers, making them live a bit of the real local life. Far from the tourists, they experience the real Paris.

If you are interested about this project, take a look a our page and subscribe to our newsletter (once a month max, no spam) :

Welcom' Home

We live the sharing spirit, because sharing is caring.

And experiences make travelling even better ;)

Travel safe, experience often !

JB

I read and reply to every comment on Medium, feel free to answer. (English is not my first language, if you find something badly written or unclear, please tell me.)

Let me tell you some things :

Writing “I DID a country” is either stupid or disrespectful

No, you did not DO a country.

You can go there.
You can live there.
You can travel there.
You can visit it.

But you do not DO a country; show respect the people who live there, its history and culture, a country is not an amusement park (despite what seem to think the editors of Lonely Planet.)

Having visited Paris in one day it is not “having visited France”

Paris is Paris, France is 20 times bigger.

One time I was in Italy by mistake for two hours, does that mean I’ve “done Italy” to you ?

So, when you hear “I’ve visited 54 countries”, what it really means is “I’ve been to 54 cities for a few days each, but I learnt nothing because I was feeding my Istagram account.”

You are the worst kind of tourist.

You are obsessed with that “countries count” that you will be able to display everywhere. As if it gave you a countenance, as if you became the summary of all the cultures of these countries.

But no, you’re like those people obsessed with the idea of a bigger TV, a bigger burger. It does not matter, but you think it will give you importance and personality.

I have a scoop for you: it will not make you better, because you do not understand where the wealth of travel is.

You are the child of the consumer society: you think that a trip is only a consumer good like any other, that you must buy as much as possible, that it can be wasted.

But travelling is an experience. An opportunity to learn, to extend one’s comfort zone, to meet different people and cultures.

You will remain an idiot, but an idiot with a world map tattooed on the arm. A few thousand dollars less, a few hundred more IG followers.

If you really want to collect something to bawl, collect good deeds, it will pollute much less than all your plane trips.

Hoping that soon there will be no one to say something as stupid as “I made XX countries”,

JB

I read and reply to every comment on Medium, feel free to answer. English is not my first language, if you find something badly written or unclear, please tell me.

I am the cofounder of Welcom’ to Paris, a community of travel enthousiasts dedicated to make travellers experience the “real” Paris, our local life.

“Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer”

Baguette is the name of the traditionnal French bread. It used to be white bread, now it’s more diverse : brown, black, whole, baguette.

It will never make it home intact

You just left work. And on the way back home, you decide to stop buying bread. Even if you do not eat it every day, it’s a simple pleasure to buy some.

“You get out of the bakery, and you look at your baguette as you walk. You know that there is 0% chance that it will arrive intact.”

So fresh and good you have to crock it before being back home. (White bread might not be the better for health, but it’s like every good product, don’t abuse.)

The little pleasures of everyday life are the best

Let me tell you a secret : we Parisians don’t really care about the Eiffel Tower. We prefer the simple pleasures of life in France, of life in Paris. Food, terraces, parks, walks in our neighborhoods, cultural places, bars.

It is exactly these little pleasures that we propose to share with travellers who come to Paris. No need for Parisians to find the Louvre or the Arc de Triomphe … But meeting Parisians is meeting Paris.

Making you feel like a Parisian for a couple hours, experience the real Paris, that’s what the Welcom’ project is all about.

A platform fro travellers, by travellers. With only travel enthousiasts, no professionnals. Before all, Parisian welcomers are only travellers that are home between two trips.

This is an unknown aspect of Parisians: despite what the clichés say, we love to share with travellers. It’s part of our little everyday pleasure.

We live the sharing spirit, because sharing is caring.

I’m leaving to buy a baguette now. See you soon in Paris !

JB

I read and reply to every comment on Medium, feel free to answer.

If you want to learn more about the Welcom’ project and community, we have another publication (here). Or you can go to our page and subscribe to our newsletter (we don’t spam, we don’t sell data) :

Welcom' Home

You can also find/contact us at Welcom’ on your favorite social network : Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

(English is not my first language, if you find something badly written or unclear, please tell me.)

We also have Black Friday in France now

A new plague coming from the United States, after reality TV, Coke and fast foods.

Apparently, 15 million French will participate this year. That’s 30% more than last year, mostly because more brands do their own Black Friday.

How the French have converted to America's 'Black Friday' shopping bonanza

The subtlety is that here, it is forbidden to make loss-making sales, so we will never have the huge discounts that consumers in the US have (and that causes riots).

In fact, it’s never more than a marketing trick. As with the January and June sales (the only two periods of sales allowed), brands increased their prices in previous weeks to make larger “fake” discounts.

Do I really need to write why I’m boycotting?

The consumerist society at its worst level. Buy, buy again, always buy things we do not need.

Objects that make us stupid like big TVs or smartphones.
Objects that make us dependent, offer us a substitute for happiness by being sure we made a good deal.

But that will never be enough. The effect will fade quickly, and we will return to sales after Christmas. Buying things because we do not know who we are anymore.

To have rather than to be.

This mass consumption is an environmental disaster. A social disaster too, when we think of slave workers who manufacture what we buy. A social disaster at home, when buying shit becomes the most exciting thing of the year.

I was like that too

I could have been among the people who rush on Black Friday in France. But I got out in time.

First job as a manager in the banking industry. Suits, Powerpoints, bonuses, in La Defense, the business district at the West of Paris. The anthill of clones.

My job had lost its meaning over time. But my boss gives me a new bonus. So I go mechanically to the big shopping center of the area. After the door, I stop: what the fuck am I doing here?

I quit the following month. And decided to start a project with a friend instead. A project that is important to me: to create a community of Parisians ready to help travellers to explore their city.

I love to travel, and the hardest part of traveling is also the most interesting: meeting locals, and discovering the real life of a place.

Since no existing solutions satisfied us, we are working to create a new community, with its own agora online. But this is another story.

Thanks to you if you boycott Black Friday, and if you plan to participate, I wish you to wean yourself soon.

A Black Friday boycotter,
JB

I’m a traveller at heart, a member of the Internet Nation and I co-created the Welcom’ to Paris project. It’s a platform where travellers can find Parisians to meet, and share a moment together living genuine Parisian experience.

You can learn more or follow it at : https://medium.com/@WelcomParis, follow / contact us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

If you find typos or mistakes in that story, please tell me. I read every comment.

I do not write this story to teach a lesson. I write this story because a friend taught me a lesson and there is a chance it can be useful to others.

There are so many CEOs nowadays

A lot of young people that start a project give themselves the title of CEO. Is it pretension? Ambition? A public takeover of responsibility?

In my case, when I talked about my project to my friend Pierre, I described my role as the one of the CEO. I think I said that both by pretension and ambition, to project myself into the future. He told me directly:

“You are not a CEO. You are a guy who started a project. If this project is successful, you may become CEO. But do not project yourself that far. Your only task is to make this project successful, day after day, and maybe at some point you will earn this title.”

Like all truth, this one shook me.

This lesson of humility reminded me of what was important: to roll up my sleeves and work.

I am only the first user.

Being the first user lets you know what the others users need. Meet, talk, receive feedback, improve.

In one year, I received more than 100 travellers from all over the world in Paris. I introduced them to the city as locals, depending on their interests. They did not meet a CEO, but a member. The first welcomer in Paris. And Parisians interested in the project have similarly met the first welcomer.

The project I created with a friend is Welcom’ to Paris. For now, it’s not a startup, just a project.

I am not a CEO, I am a welcomer.

JB

I’m a traveller at heart, a member of the Internet Nation and I co-created the Welcom’ to Paris project. It’s a platform where travellers can find Parisians to meet, and share a moment together living genuine Parisian experience.

You can learn more or follow it at : https://medium.com/@WelcomParis, follow / contact us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

If you find typos or mistakes in that story, please tell me. I read every comment.

I started smoking occasionally at 20 years old. I am 29 now.

That’s thousands of cigarettes. At the average rate of 3 a day for 9 years, it is 10,000 cigarettes. 500 packs, around 2500 euros maybe.

I smoke like a French

When I have a drink with friends. If we are on a terrace, in the summer, drinking good beer, I can smoke 10 or more cigarettes in the evening.

Too many good memories that include smoking. Not to mention nicotine addiction, the gesture itself is a habit.

Am I going to wait for the damage to stop?

No. Of course not.

I do not have any problems with my lungs: I run twice a week without feeling any gene.

But when I want to stop smoking, I think about that:

• It gives a bad breath ;
• Butts are not biodegradable ;
• My money has to go to my project, not in cigarettes ;
• It damages my gums ;
• It makes me waste time ;
• It has a huge impact on sport practice (I feel it as I’m doing the sport again) ;
• It’s not cultural like drinking good wine.

Last but not least, as a Frenchman, I can not stand that smoking makes me lose part of my sense of taste.

In any case, the desire of smocking has passed for today.

3rd day without cigarettes. And I plan to start 2018 by being a non-smoker.

Good luck to all those who want to quit!
Stay strong and healthy,

JB

I’m a traveller at heart, a member of the Internet Nation and I created the Welcom’ to Paris project. It’s a platform where travellers can find Parisians to meet, and share a moment together living genuine Parisian experience.

You can learn more or follow it at : https://medium.com/@WelcomParis

If you find typos or mistakes in that story, please tell me ! I read every comment.

This is the view you have when you leave the railstation Saint Charles :

Pretty great, isn’t it ?

Marseille is a quite large city, where you can find all types of districts: from wealthy districts with beautiful buildings to the degraded buildings ensembles, passing by old buildings typical of the South.

The color of the water is one of the characteristics of this 2600 years old city, established by the Greeks from Phocée :

Even my friend Pouchi from Costa Rica was amazed by this color (and of course, no filter !).

This makes a perfect excuse to find a restaurant and have lunch in a little harbor inside the city :

Typical meal of Provence (the region around Marseille), it’s called a Bélino.

With meat, tapenade, lard, and cooked on a plancha with vegetables.

It’s not really veggie (I try to be veggie lately) but it’s delicious.

Just after lunch, we discovered another of the peculiarities of the city: there are beaches ! Catalan beach, Prado beach and others. Great for swimming all year round after work.

But the most spectacular remains to come.

The calanques : a marvel of nature at the gates of the city

“Calanques” is a generic term for the magnificent natural and wild coves on the south coast of Marseilles. There are several, preserved in a protected natural park. We went to the Calanque de Sormiou, the easiest of access (the others claim 30 to 60mn walk, and one of us had a bad ankle).

Just two pictures to show you :

We were on the 5th of October, bathing !

The President’s Holiday Town

The week I decided to go to Marseille, President Macron spent a week of vacation in this city. Politico revealed it, and encouraged its readers to visit Marseille before it became a tourist hell:

Why Marseille? Macron's hip holiday (and 5 reasons to go)

Indeed, the city is still relatively low key. That suits me very well: I always try to avoid the tourists, because generally, they get scammed or behave badly.

As with every trip, I prepared things thoroughly. I read articles (including the history of the city, on Wikipedia), looked at the tips given by sites and blogs, and listed the “things that would be nice to do”. I wrote a story about how the spirit to prepare an interesting trip if you are interested (here).

I knew that I would be with Thomas, a friend who will move to Marseille soon, and who knew the town a little, and that his buddy Alexandra had invited his friend from Marseilles Sylvain to join us. So I’ll be with loc! What I find very important, wherever the trip is.

Moreover, an unexpected encounter occurred on the first day! Ami, an Italian who has been working as an au pair in Marseille for a few months, is interested in my Welcom’ to Paris project. She recognized me as we crossed each others in a small harbor! The next day she and her friend Sonia joined us to visit the MUCEM (photos below), and she knew a lot about the museum, Fort Saint Jean, and the historical district “Panier” (“the basket”). A real local welcomer, like what we do in Paris!

Dirty but beautiful : dirtiful ?

(Yes, the Marseillais love to invent words.)
It is a thing that is noticed directly in the city: the waste everywhere. Cans, papers, but also garbage cans that overflow (the garbage collectors are regularly on strike). Here, people throw their garbage into the street. One thing that particularly shocked me: many people smoke, but there are no ashtrays at the door of restaurants, nor on the terraces.

But the beauty of the city, especially under the sun, is magical.

The Vieux Port and La Major

The old harbor is the archetype of the Marseilles quarter: full of fishing and pleasure boats, terraces, a fish market, etc. The only worry is that it is half filled with tourists and the other half of people coming to trash or dredge the tourists. Not the best place in Marseille, by far.

A little bit further is a wonder. La Major is a magnificent cathedral built in the neo-Byzantine style of the late nineteenth century, the same style as the basilica of the Sacre Coeur in Paris. This basilica is close to home, and I love to bring the travelers I meet and show them my favorite corners of Montmartre around.

What is pretty awesome is that it is right across from the most famous museums in town. MUCEM means “Museum of the Civilizations of Europe and the Mediterranean”.

MUCEM and Fort Saint Jean

This name is a little overdone: the permanent collection is poor, and focuses solely on agriculture and its dissemination. On the other hand, the temporary exhibitions are very interesting, and the museum itself has a very beautiful architecture. Moreover, it is connected to Fort Saint Jean, a restored medieval fortress, which has watched over the harbor for hundreds of years.

The MUCEM and the fort are connected by an aerial bridge that allows to “float” above the water. The views of the city and the sea are magnificent from the fort. Moreover, the visit is free! Only museum exhibitions are chargeable. For history lovers, this fort is truly a treat. The explanations are in French and English, so everyone can understand.

There are at least two other museums that I have spotted and that we could not do: the Roman Docks Museum (in the Roman period of Marseille) and the History Museum of the City of Marseille (only 5 € and very complete). It will be for next time !

After the museums, we wanted to discover the living parts of Marseille. We started with a great pub on the Prado beach with two Marseillan friends, before going into a unique artistic ensemble.

The Friche de la Belle de Mai

“Friche” means “browfield” or even “industrial wasteland”. In the heart of the underprivileged neighborhood of the Belle de Mai, an old cigarette factory, huge, has been abandoned for years.

For 15 years, it has become an immense artistic residence, with workshops, exhibitions, sports, events and workspaces for startups. The energy that comes out of this place is incredible!

If I lived in Marseille, I know exactly where I would work to develop my collaborative tourism project, Welcom’.

Like all cities, Marseille is even better appreciated with locals

No book, no app’, no website can replace someone who knows intimately the city and its atmosphere.

Marseille is made by the Marseillais, and meetings make the best memories.

I owe an apology to this city: for years I thought it was a horrible place. Every time the media talk about Marseille, it is because of drug trafficking, corruption affairs or garbage collectors strikes.

In the end, I found that Marseille was a very pleasant city, which has advantages and defects, like all of places. But I understand why the Phocaeans settled here 2600 years ago, and why my friend Thomas will leave Paris to live there.

Maybe one day we will develop Welcom’ to Marseille?

In the meantime, thank you Marseille, and see you soon!
JB

I’m a traveller at heart, a member of the Internet Nation and I created the Welcom’ to Paris project. It’s a platform where travellers can find Parisians to meet, and share a moment together living genuine Parisian experience.

You can learn more or follow it at : https://medium.com/@WelcomParis

If you find typos or mistakes in that story, please tell me ! I read every comment.

One of the symptoms which tells us that Paris is a city where it is difficult to run, is that it often takes great brands to get involved. Nike, Adidas and Reebok (among others) have created running clubs with professionals to prepare real routes inside the city.

For short, there are three types of convenient places to run: along canals, parks in the city, and parks outside the city.

Along the Seine river or the Canal de l’Ourcq

Let’s be clear : runing along the Seine is perfect to enjoy the view of the buildings of the quays. Notre Dame de Paris, the Quai d’Orsay, the Quai Branly museum, and other glorious buildings.

Good news: the North banks of the Seine are now pedestrians. Even better to run still!

The other “water piece running” option is the Canal de l’Ourcq.

Starting at Place de la Bataille de Stalingrad, in the North-East of Paris (19th district) you can run along the Canal for almost as long as you want. The itinerary passes through the big Parc de la Villette, then by Pantin, Bondy, Bobigny, on a real highway made for running. It’s my personnal favorite route. It won’t be as classy as the Seine river sides, but more industrial and popular.

Parks inside Paris

There are mostly three good parks to run : Monceau, Buttes Chaumont and Luxembourg. And a special one : the Coulée Verte. They are ideals for short distance trainings.

Parc Monceau : small but circular.

In the 9th district (North-West of the center), it’s a very nice park with a lot of runners in weekends. But it’s so charming it’s still a pleasure. If my memory is good, a lap of the park is 1,6km.

Luxembourg Garden

This park is nammed after the Palais du Luxembourg, which is the French Senate (lots of old white dudes doing nothing but eating). It is larger than Monceau, but more crowded. It is in the South of Paris, almost the Center (6th district) :

Parc des Buttes Chaumont : much more difficult

This park is magnificent and full of history (it is an old shanty town on the edge of Paris) but it is especially steep. Running here is working your calves! It is located in the East of the Center, in the 20th district.

One lap should be around 2km. On sunny days, it’s crowded too, but not with runners.

Coulée Verte René Dumont

This is a very particuliar route, as it’s a linear park. Starting near Opera Bastille (with stairs !), it is a tree-lined promenade that overlooks all the south-east of Paris to the immense wood Bois de Vincennes. Very pleasant point of view.

Parks outside Paris

By “outside”, I mean “out of Paris borders”. There are mostly two : Bois de Boulogne, to the South-West of Paris, and Bois de Vincennes to the South-East.

These two huge parks are perfect if you intend to do a big training or just run with the most nature possible around.

Unfortunately, in France we do not have the large parks that the German cities have, like the Tempelhofer Feld (I ran there !) in Berlin or the Stadtpark in Hamburg… (I’m so jealous).

I hope this will be useful to you, fellow runners and travelers!

I know how good it is to mix the pleasure of jogging with that of discovering a city. If you want more details or if you want to run together when you are in Paris, tell me!

I created a project to help travelers to meet Parisians and discover their city, experience a bit of the local life. I love meeting travelers, just as I love meeting local people when I travel. It’s called Welcom’ to Paris and if you want to join, please do !

I wish you good running sessions, and see you in Paris !
JB

Paris 1 — Where to run in Paris ? was originally published in I will run in your hometown on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.