Écoutez Bien, Américains! Don’t Expect Paris to Make You More Sophisticated

The City Is Gorgeous and Inspirational, but for Too Many Visitors, It’s Also a Cop-Out

I hate Paris. That’s what I was thinking a few mornings ago while I was brooding over a café au lait at a hipster joint near the Canal Saint-Martin.

The coffee was perfectly roasted. The steamed milk almost fluffy. The young woman reading next to me had that perfect combination of elegance and boho grunge, style and studied insouciance that only a French woman can pull off.

You see what I did? I just said the word insouciance! Shoot me now!

This gorgeous city can do that to you—make you say words you …

By Gregory Rodriguez | November 10, 2015

Longing for L.A.

How Nostalgia, Memory, and Jet Lag Connect Me to the City

By Gregory Rodriguez | October 27, 2015

I ran away from home at 14 years old. I didn’t grab a backpack and go sleep at a friend’s. I didn’t steal away in the middle of the night. …

The Purpose of Traveling

A 100-Mile Walk Through Scotland Was Neither Business Nor Pleasure

By Gregory Rodriguez | September 9, 2015

I hop on planes a lot because life is hard. I don’t mean that I jet off to Cancun or Bermuda to recuperate from the burdens of the daily grind. …

Bogotá, My Home Away From Home

I Began My Trip to Colombia as a Teen Feeling Lost, and Ended With a New Sense of Belonging in the World

by Natasha Verdon | August 12, 2015

After finishing seventh grade, I found myself at the Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX, where my mother put me on a plane headed to Bogotá, Colombia.

It wasn’t as …

How Living Abroad Brought Me Closer to Home

As a Californian With Korean-Irish Roots, I Felt More Like a Global Citizen—Until I Lived Outside the U.S.

by Victoria Namkung | June 2, 2015

In the summer of 1997, days after my 20th birthday, I was making my first international trip alone. I was going to Kuala Lumpur for the summer to intern at …

Want to Drive California’s Most Terrifying Highways?

Sure, the 5 and the 101 Are Efficient. But If You Want to Find Beauty and Danger on the Roads of California, Head East or West.

by Joe Mathews | April 30, 2015

Do you seek beauty and danger in California, but are unsure in which direction you can find it?

West. Just drive west.

Or east.

California is sturdily and reliably connected from north to …

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