Slowing down, living simply

«Travelling is exhausting,» a colleague said to me recently, after going on a big trip. I agreed, then paused and had a moment of panic. Are the next five months going to be crazy for us? Then I remembered that our trip isn’t like other trips we’ve been on. The point isn’t to run around and see as much as we can in a short amount of time. It’s more of a marathon then a sprint. Here are some initial thoughts on that… I wonder if this will hold up for the full five months…

One thing we’ve really embraced is the idea of living more simply and slowing down the pace. Usually when we travel, we try to pack so much in. Now, we have the incredible benefit of having plenty of time in one place, not working, not having a schedule or commitments. We’re trying to keep things simple. This extends to material things as well. We don’t have much of a choice - we’re living in a small house and we didn’t bring many personal belongings. We’re wearing the same clothes twice (and sometimes longer). We shop every few days at the grocery store to stock up on the necessities, like milk, yogurt, sliced bread, granola and simple meals like pasta. We’re buying small quantities of everything, because we don’t have the space for more and we have to carry what we buy. Our fridge is about an eighth of the size of our fridge at home so we can’t buy huge quantities. When we can, we pick up fresh bread, meat, fish and produce, which is such a wonderful advantage to being in this part of the world. Most of the produce is local or imported from close by. It’s so good. Because we’re not working, we have more time and can afford to do this. Of course we realize this is a huge privilege to being off work during this time.

Hungry after sailing lesson? Buying fresh fruit in Carnac:

It’s definitely a challenge for me at times. When we pass a big grocery store, my instinct is to run in and stock up. But that’s not even an option. It’s hard because it’s so fun to see all the amazing, different kinds of foods they have here! Is it the different options, the packaging? I want to try it all! Since we don’t have a car and the stores aren’t super close by, we have to plan our grocery store trips strategically to avoid needing something at the last minute. If we don’t have something, we make do without. At home, we’d hop in the car and make a quick trip to the store.

Some of our fresh bread options in Auray:

Because we don’t have a car, we’re also taking the bus to get around. This means our days are planned around bus schedules and we have to be flexible if we miss a bus or waited at the wrong stop (this has actually happened). We find things to do to fill our time if we have to wait for a bus, and we’re trying to get our kids used to the idea of finding ways to fill their time without screens or constant stimulation. some days are easier than others.

Waiting at the bus stop after sailing camp and stocking up on groceries in Carnac:

We don’t have a TV and we’re trying to limit screen time. Jon and I are also spending less time on our phones. Only one of us has an international SIM card with very few MBs, and otherwise we rely on Wifi (which is really easy to come by. In Paris I even dipped into a café and asked for the Wifi password so I could look up an address quickly. It wasn’t a problem.). Still, we can’t take our phones out every few minutes just because we think about something we want to check. It keeps us from mindlessly looking at our devices. In the evenings at the Airbnb, we catch up on our phones. We use the time to write the blog, research and make reservations for our trip, and check our emails. I’m trying to be very intentional with my phone. The kids and I write in our journals. We play the games we brought and we hang out. These days the kids are super tired from sailing lessons anyway, but the sun is up so late here (it’s light past 10pm) it’s hard to send them to bed early!

It will be interesting to see how much of this sticks, and how different it is on other legs of the trip. Stay tuned!