Traveling A Good Deal

I took 8 flights in 2019, including 3 intercontinental. I set out in 2020 to reduce my carbon footprint by avoiding planes, and according to my plans and thanks to the global pandemic, I’ll only take 2 international flights this year: I’m settling down in Bordeaux for a year.

But this isn’t the end of my life as a digital nomad. Quite the contrary.

I want to use this year to travel more slowly and locally, or as Thoreau would put it: “I have traveled a good deal in Concord; and  everywhere, in shops, and offices, and fields, the inhabitants have  appeared to me to be doing penance in a thousand remarkable ways.”

Bordeaux is ideally located for regular sea and forest bathing. The Atlantic Ocean and the Landes forest are less than two hours away by bike. In fact, it’s the ideal location to use a bike as a mode of transport. The Pilgrim Road, spanning from Galicia to Trondheim, passes through Bordeaux. The Atlantic Coast Route as well, all the way from the Fjords to Lisboa.  Both routes combined represent about 16,000km, 60% longer than a trip from France to Vietnam.

I tend to think that traveling without the intention of meeting people is meaningless. Most of my closest friends live in Paris, which is two hours from Bordeaux by train. My hometown, where my parents live, is an hour away by train, or 4-5 hours by bike (~100km). The pandemic made me more appreciative of the bonds I have developed, and I intend to better nurture them while I’m in France.

I’m also excited about the simple act of strolling around Bordeaux. There are many green spaces and little streets to discover, not to mention the docks all along the Garonne river.

A good deal of traveling is awaiting indeed.