Photo Diary: French Riviera (& the making of the Lavish Escape)
For the past week I’ve been holed up in the library, reading and writing my heart out. I was in a quiet back corner surrounded my books on France and external hard drives. An onlooker might have thought I was a UVA grad student working on my thesis about in reality I was plotting a trip to the French Riviera… for you!
You may have seen that one of my side projects here is creating Escape Guides, one week guides to the Europe. To be honest, they’re not geared for luxury travelers or even backpackers, instead young professionals that want to travel cost-effectively (hello, Airbnb!) but not forgoing comfort and great experiences. They’re broken down day-by-day so instead of weeding through a giant guidebook trying to figure out where to go/eat/stay so you can just follow along and relax because you know you’re experiencing the best of it! I’d categorize myself as Type A in terms of planning so the guides are no exception – lots of checklists and helpful resources of getting the entire trip booked within an hour.
I have always wanted to be an entrepreneur so it’s been really interesting getting this project off the ground. I absolutely love everything to do with the final product from planning out the itineraries to putting them together in InDesign. Today I got my first review (5 stars!) and I nearly fell out of my chair. I can’t overstate how satisfying it is to know that I’ve created a helpful product that folks are using and enjoying. Of course, starting a little business always has to have it’s cons: the on-going tech issues I’ve had with this site and woo commerce might be enough of a reason to pull my hair out. Dan commented the other day “Oh wow, you’ve been burning through the minutes on your cell this month.” Instead of catching up with my friends I’ve been kicking it with Blue Host’s tech support team. Yay! (Interesting fact for other Blue Host customers out there – if you run into any issues they are VERY responsive on Twitter so reach out to them there first!) For anyone else that’s been in my shoes, I’d love any advice you may have on getting started.
As I was putting together the Lavish Escape (released this past Sunday) I had fun going back through my photos from my recent visit to the Cote d’Azur and wanted to share them as a collection. The region is cohesively dreamy with rich pastels against the vibrant Med. Enjoy!
Are you sold yet? Thought so!
Here’s a few more deets on the guide: with the Lavish Escape you’ll tour the star studded Cote d’Azur, stopping in seaside towns of Menton, Eze, St. Tropez, Saint Paul-de-Vence, and the city of Nice. Using Villefranche-sur-Mer and Cannes as base camps, you’ll have all the details on exploring the most spectacular sights and restaurants in the region including favorite beaches for locals, coastal hiking trails, have an ultra-scenic sunset dinner, an island picnic and boat cruise! The French Riviera gets 300 days of sun annually so anytime is a wonderful time to escape! Sound like a dream? It is!
Head over to the Etsy shop to get your copy!
I also created this fun little promo video in iMovie which I shared on Instagram but I’m kind of proud of it so I wanted to share it here too! 😉
