WELL TRAVELED in PARIS: FINDING THE PERFECT AIRBNB TO CALL HOME

I’m a bit of a neurotic Virgo Airbnb expert (self titled, not an official Airbnb expert - also, this is not sponsored, but I’m absolutely not opposed to an Airbnb sponsorship if you know anyone…). I’ve been known to spend hours digging through Airbnb, creating wishlist upon wishlist for places that I may never go to, for places that I go frequently, for places that I’m inspired by, for dream trips, for gatherings. My ADHD frequently stops me from whatever task I have at hand when a location pops into my mind that makes me head over to Airbnb (or ZIllow, my other weird addiction - my saved Zillow list has homes collected in cities from LA to rural Iowa) and search for the next place I want to visit.

When I travel, it’s important for me to feel like a local wherever I’m at. I’m not much of a hotel person - don’t get me wrong, I love little luxuries like the next person, but I LOVE having a kitchen, personal touches a washer and a dryer, and a place that feels, for lack of a better phrase - “well lived.” I’m also looking for places that are photogenic - for obvious reasons. Finding homes that people have put love into in far off places, for me, is part of the experience of the adventure. And I love a good adventure.

I think of the place I stay when I travel as an extension of the trip - the home base to bring me comfort after a day of exploring, where rainy days are spent inside reading books or playing games or getting work done, where I’ll cook feasts with seasonal ingredients found locally at a market or foraged in a forest. I seek out locally grown produce when I travel, pay attention to what’s in season, search for regional treasures, and find ways to connect to a place when I travel. I’ve never been a fan of being a tourist so I research as much as I can about local culture prior to going, look for neighborhoods with a food co-op or farmer’s market, and then scan Airbnb to see if the homes in that place have an aesthetic I’m drawn to. I also think about the needs of the people I’m traveling with (or safety if I’m traveling solo) and use the filters religiously to find just the perfect place to call home. If I’m going to a city, I prefer walking over driving (the best way to get to know a place, in my opinion) so I look for walkable neighborhoods with farm to table restaurants (a good sign of a place I’ll be able to eat with food intolerances, and a good sign of my kind of town). If my mission is to escape the city (I live in LA, and I always say the secret to living in LA is to escape often), I look for lots of land to be away from it all but a strong wifi signal so I can still connect if I need to. I read reviews to see if the beds are comfy, if the neighbors are noisy, if the hot water works, if the kitchen has pots and pans, if there were any safety issues, if the place is dog friendly (when traveling with our senior pup), if there are stairs (a 4th floor walkup when I’m traveling alone with photo gear isn’t ideal, and also isn’t ideal when traveling with said senior pup), if I’m driving, I filter places that come with parking, if I’m traveling for more than a few days, I look for a washer and a dryer.

In early 2020, before shit got real, as they say, Eric (husband) and I took a trip to London and Paris - his first time in Europe, and for me, the kick off of my 40th year on earth. I had a goal that I would travel to a different place each month of my 40th year (intentions don’t always go as planned - we all know how that turned out). Eric had just quit drinking / smoking 2 months prior (I had quit a year before that), and oblivious as I can tend to be, I never imagined taking him to Europe for the first time in the winter, 2 months into quitting drinking / smoking would be a challenge - needless to say it wasn’t my finest moment in trip planning. We wound up having a bit of an Airbnb nightmare upon our arrival in London, where the apartment was being renovated and hadn’t been cleaned upon our arrival after 13 hours flying, we were tired, we were hungry, it was his first time out of the country, and the thing we’d typically done while traveling - find a bar - was out of the question. It set the trip off to a roaring start of arguing and misunderstanding and both of us lacking the ability to set boundaries around our own needs at the time created a shit storm of epic proportions. We spent 3 days wandering the streets of London in the rain, walking and walking until our feet bled, to keep from drinking. We left London, arguing the entire train ride to Paris on Valentine’s day - something in my head I dreamed would be romantic, but at that point,we were both emotionally spent, with no proper plans. We took a cab ride to the Airbnb I had found (I was praying that there were no further Airbnb disasters because we really couldn’t take anymore drama at that point) and thankfully, Paris saved the day, the Airbnb was perfect, and it even had an elevator so that we didn’t have to carry our bags up to the 5th floor.

We walked 75 miles on that trip, and extended our stay in Paris, booking out a second magical Airbnb that did not disappoint. The trip will live in infamy in our marriage as the last normal pre-pandemic trip (we thought it was strange that people were starting to freak out about this virus that was going around), the trip that Eric survived not drinking or smoking (which turned out being a serious blessing, considering that the pandemic lockdown started 10 days after we got back - I can’t imagine how that would have gone had we been drinking the whole time).

A tasty meal we made in Paris with meat and winter veggies from the local market

The most perfectly appointed Airbnb - a perfect place to eat copious amounts of Macarons.

We walked 75 miles on that trip, visited the Paris Flea, where I stocked up on vintage kitchen linens - one of my favorite things to collect while traveling - and extended our stay in Paris, booking out a second magical Airbnb that did not disappoint in another neighborhood - Paris apartments are definitely well lived!

The trip will live in infamy in our marriage as the last normal pre-pandemic trip (we thought it was strange that people were starting to freak out about this virus that was going around), the trip that Eric survived not drinking or smoking (which turned out being a serious blessing, considering that the pandemic lockdown started 10 days after we got back - I can’t imagine how that would have gone had we been drinking the whole time).

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