Traveling while taking your time, strolling through the streets of a city, focusing on meeting people, while soaking up the atmosphere that reigns there, isn’t that the very essence of travel? Resting, slowing down, recharging our batteries, that’s often what we’re looking for when we go on vacation… But do we really do it?
“The idea of a vacation is the desire to take a break and break away from the hectic pace of daily life,” says Jean-Michel Dufaux, author of the book A Year Abroad and founder of the Siège Hublot website, dedicated to travel.
However, he thinks that you have to make choices, settle down somewhere, accept not seeing everything, visiting everything, doing less, but better, and taking the time to live. “The purpose of vacation is to rest. Everyone is tired, stressed, overworked, so we should focus on quality and not quantity, take the time to discover new landscapes, to meet the inhabitants, their culture and their gastronomy,” he says. .
He mentions the popularity of Airbnb and house and apartment rentals, which comes precisely from this desire to stay longer in a place, sometimes far from the most touristy areas of the city, in search of more authenticity.
Marc-Antoine Vachon, holder of the Transat Chair in Tourism at UQAM, recalls that slow travel appeared around 1999, and that this phenomenon of wanting to travel while taking one’s time has been growing for years.
Because when we start traveling, we often think that the important thing is to visit as many places as possible. But experience makes us understand that memories are important just like encounters. “The aging of the population plays an important role,” he emphasizes. The older we get and the more we are in search of meaning, we want to slow down the pace, to better enjoy the things in life. »
This is the case of Jean-Michel Dufaux, who left for a year in 2018. He stayed mainly in three cities, Chiang Mai, in Thailand, Mazatlán, in Mexico, and Da Nang, in Vietnam. “There was this reflection on life going too fast and a questioning linked to middle age. It feels good to get away from your everyday life, from your comfort. But I am well aware that not everyone can afford this one-year break because of work, financial insecurity or children,” he notes.
Many people have the dream of going away for a year, like the author Elizabeth Gilbert who tells it in Eat Pray Love, or like Peter Mayle in A Year in Provence. “I want to try the experience again and this time to settle for a year in a city, perhaps in France,” confides Jean-Michel Dufaux.
He advocates the discovery of lesser-known cities where there is added value. Because staying a little longer in a city that sees fewer tourists makes the experience more pleasant and authentic, according to him.
He lists some less visited countries: Slovenia, Romania, Bulgaria, Belgium, the city of Rotterdam, Netherlands, and Hamburg, Germany.
Lyon is one of those cities that deserves attention. Virginie Carton, general director of ONLYLYON Tourism and Congress, wants to encourage visitors to stay longer in Lyon. Currently, the average length of stay is 3.5 nights. She would like it to be 5-6 nights. “We offer more possibilities throughout the destination,” she said in an interview. There is gastronomy, culture, and we work in partnership with neighboring towns, such as Beaujolais, known for its wine. It is a magnificent territory with small villages with beautiful viewpoints accessible by train. »
There is also the entire Rhône valley to explore or Lake Annecy and even the Alps, adds the one who indicates that Lyon, a city on a human scale, has developed responsible tourism. “Our public transportation system is very efficient. There are also numerous secure cycle paths, a Accueil Vélo label for hotels and restaurants and the Lyon City Card, which gives access, at a reduced price, to many sites and to public transport. »
Off-season travel is also on the rise, notes Marc-Antoine Vachon, a way of avoiding crowds and the extreme summer heat in certain countries. “It is an increasingly popular choice, for financial reasons in particular, but also to live an experience closer to the daily lives of residents, for more authenticity and exchanges. »
