City of Love - Our Road Trip to Paris: Living in the Moment and Loving It

The Moments, when travelling: Like having a croissant and coffee in the sun.

So, this is a short blog post - part of the migration of our traveling blog to our main blog. This post will be the first in English since it sort of makes sense to make sure, everybody in the worldschooling and (un)schooling the world communities can join in. I am a schooled woman, and I have this built-in fear of grammatical - or spelling mistakes, that has made it virtually impossible for me to write in English - which is plain stupid since the mission is to communicate, not to pretend.

On the road, with a simple goal and enough time to just enjoy the here and now

And for my danish speaking readers: Jeg har valgt at skrive vores rejseblog på engelsk fremadrettet, da vi er del af to multisprogede communities i forbindelse med vores hjemme"undervisning". Vi læser andres rejseblogs og erfaringer med dette såkaldt alternative liv, og vil gerne gøre det muligt for dem at læse vores, uden at skulle omkring google translate. Vi ved godt, det kan virke forstyrrende at læse engelsk, skrevet af en anden dansker, men vi håber på lidt forståelse. Vi har ikke tid til at skrive to tekster hver gang, og har derfor valgt det sprog, flest personer i vores forskellige netværk læser.

The life on the road, building love, building common stories

Anyway - this Road Trip is the first in this season if you don't count The Easter Trip - and that would not be fair to the moraine landscape of Northern Sealand, and the stunning art of Olafur Eliasson at the artmuseum Aros in Århus.

So, to be fair, this is the second Road Trip of the year 2015. We have named it Destination City of Love. I realize that Paris can be named so many other things - Like City of Cities or City of Light. I can live with that. To me, Paris is a great city to explore, and I will this time do something, I should have done years ago: Make contact with a cousin of mine, who lives there - connecting with family is a very important part of traveling, and of life itself, I believe.

Here we met an angry swan and learned stuff about bird behavior

So far, we have moved to the south of Denmark, visiting my high school friend Marie-Luise and her family. We have been hanging out, connecting, playing, knitting, talking (a lot), having some red wine, and enjoying the sunlight and the flowers. We have had a brief meetup with another unschooling family, which is always fun. Today we will be leaving for Germany, and begin the more free road-tripping. And about that, of more value for everybody planning to travel, I will include the Tips & Tricks of the Day - List. I always feel like making it perfect, sharing everything I have ever learned about worldschooling, but seriously: That is never going to happen. So more useful is to share a bit, whenever I am blogging about this.

Tips and Tricks for Worldschooling - Most Importantly: Do not plan your entire trip.

There is no reason to explain why staying here for a bit was worth it

First, I have found that too much planning is a bad thing. I recommend just having a goal or maybe two, and then studying the areas you are traveling through so you can find whatever is of interest. At one point, we set out to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and at another point, it was the Strait of Gibraltar, a very special cave, an interesting river - you get the point. But my point is, that the idea of having no plan, or not too many plans, changes your focus and makes the Here&Now your real experience.

The vegetative state of transportation makes room for a special kind of consciousness

And everything that just happens, whatever you actually feel like and see and enjoy, is part of the Great Trip; and all of the meals, views, pauses, coffees, and conversations are so very much an interesting and enjoyable part of the Travel Experience as drawing the Eiffel Tower or looking at dolphins in Strait of Gibraltar.

In detail, the power of beauty in nature just as in art and architecture

So, our strategy is to 1. have a van that supports most needs, such as rest, food, water, internet, gaming and pausing, knitting, reading, and having coffee, so wherever we stop, we are mostly self-sufficient, and 2. to have just one or two goals, so that The Big World will not become something we just rush through to get to all of the tourist attractions. On the other hand, having no goal at all feels too complicated and chaotic.

Silke is drawing and pausing from the many new things happening when on the road

This time, we will show the children (ages 3,6,9 and 15) the Eiffel Tower and the Mona Lisa, but we will experience so much more on the road, and in Paris, there will be the vibe of Paris, things that just happen, people and views, art and books, pain aux chocolate, the metro lines, and the french language. It will be fun. And on the way, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, and Rural France will be fun as well.

a very special door, to a very special garden i Aabenraa, Denmark

With love

Cecilie Conrad

A comment on this article from my old site

Andre Light: Tusind tak for continuing this journey in English and for the brief meetup ogsaa! ;)