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Vicarious Travel during Pandemic

Like many here my trip to Paris was cancelled by the pandemic; our long planned trip with our granddaughter may never happen now. We are enjoying vicarious travel on line -- there are lots of travel photos on youtube -- I have been visiting the Ajanta Caves in India and Machu PIchu -- places I know at my age I will never see in person.

Here are some collections of snapshots, many from Paris or France, that you might enjoy for vicarious travel in these times; the most recent was a day trip we took from Paris to Chateau Maintenon:
www.janettravels.wordpress.com

Here is another similar site that includes collections of visits to sites in southern France:
https://vanessafrance.wordpress.com

I am sure many of you have favorite sites and blogs of travel photos and it would be great to share them so we can all expand our vicarious travel. (and of course we can find Rick Steves on line for video streaming of his visits to interesting spots around the world)

Posted by
3961 posts

Hi Janet,

Thank you for the kind reminder of your travel blog. In the past I have referred to your helpful travel photos and stories when planning our journeys! This adds to our list of ways to live vicariously. Last evening we wanted to revisit Paris. We watched "Midnight in Paris" (3rd time). The movie captures all the familiar landmarks as well as the artist community that brings back fond memories. Merci.

I hope all our favorite bloggers will contribute to this thread.

Posted by
8496 posts

Midnight in Paris is a terrific visit and relatively entertaining. There is a silly little series available o Amazon Prime called Alice in Paris with a silly story but delightful pictures especially of food. Then there is Lost in Paris another offbeat but fun intro to the city. The collection of 16 short stories by different directors based on various arrondissements in Paris is also worth a look although uneven; my favorite is the one that looks at the travel of a middle aged postal worker from the US midwest who has saved for a lifetime and 'mastered' French for her visit. Paris Je t'aime.

Posted by
7859 posts

Thank you, Jane! It’s too bad that a Virtual Croissant just doesn’t taste the same as a proper one in France, but the travel images sure help. I hope your trip with your granddaughter does happen, and stay safe in the meantime.

Posted by
99 posts

I can’t do this. I guess I need to mourn a little for the loss of all the travel we had already booked this year, and possibly the next. I tried catching up on some of my favorite travel blogs on YouTube but I found myself feeling bereft afterwards. It’s an old fashioned word but feels appropriate for me.

Posted by
7053 posts

My digital albums are very large (I doubt most people would have the patience to scroll through hundreds of photos), but here is a "relatively" manageable one from my last layover in Istanbul because it only covers 2 or so days (caveat: it captures only a sliver of the city and leaves out most of the top tourist sites).

Istanbul is definitely one of my favorite cities. Enjoy!
https://goo.gl/photos/voSThvQM36xb71BD8

Oooooppps....sorry. I totally disregarded this was a France forum (didn't read carefully - only noticed the title). I can delete this post.

Posted by
1363 posts

I, too, am having trouble looking on the bright side. Today I cancelled my school’s immersion trip to France from the end if May to the end of June. It was not fun sharing the news with my students, even though they were expecting it. This also meant cancelling my staying in France a month after their departure. Hoping I can at least do am couple of weeks in Québec this summer, but I am not getting my hopes up.

Posted by
2274 posts

Thank you, thank you. I admit that I had forgotten about your blog and revisiting it gave me some new sites to see in Paris. We’ve been often enough that we need more ideas and you’ve given us some great ones.

Posted by
4660 posts

Janet, I am going to read through more of yours. I remember reading one about a stay in Granada when I was choosing apartments (for 2016). And Agnes, I guess I am weird - I just went through these photos one by one. I started to just do the overview but Istanbul was such a riot of color that I visually needed each one individually. Loved them!

Posted by
7053 posts

Thanks, Travelmom...I don't think it's weird. I love looking at others' photos myself! Sorry again for messing up the France forum with another country.