Gavin’s Clemente-Ruiz, from Routard’s Guide.

Madame Figaro. – What can travel be today in a world shaken by crises?
Gavin’s Clemente-Ruiz. – This is the question that prompted me to write this book. I open it up to economic, physical, travel can be trying, and environmental constraints that are very much in my mind. Just like the Covid-19 pandemic that forced us all to shut ourselves down. I wondered what the journey would be like after all that. What I like is that he can be more conscious and responsible, away from what I call Kleenex trips, fast, even expressive, spend more time in place, deepen his stay and limit his carbon footprint. We are filled with desires, fed by media or social networks. We want to go to just such a place, take just such a photo, in front of the cliffs of Etretat, in the footsteps of Omar Sai. Lupine or in the Place de Contrescarpe, like the heroineEmily in Paris . But is the purpose of travel to string images like pearls? It seems to me that the goal is to go more into the unknown and less where everyone else is going. A true discovery that brings back a taste elsewhere.

Does it still exist, this other place, while our screens seem to make the world accessible?
Adventurers like Mathieu Torde give me the feeling that yes. I am not sure that I am capable of exploring the poles like him, but he makes me dream, awakens that desire to go somewhere else. And I like that. I make a confession in the book: I have no sense of direction. If I have to turn right, I always take the left side and get lost. Is it bad? Absolutely not, on the contrary. This led me to discover many areas that I would have missed. I really like the concept of the micro-adventure that Alastair Humphreys developed. This great traveler spent four years traveling the world before realizing that he had never explored the mountain in front of his house. Elsewhere, first of all, it is a change of view, view of the world.

How to transform your look?
Social networks eliminate geographical and temporal distances. The world has shrunk instead of expanding. But we can explore a previously unexplored groove, visit a city we pass through, change our route. It can be frustrating, but what do we have to lose? Let’s take gambling, we will win the growth of humanity. Travel is above all a state of mind. It is not given to everyone, nor is it easily accessible, but we can find ways and tips, for example holiday vouchers, which amount to several million euros a year and belong to the DNA of French tourism. First of all, there is no need to go far. near home you can make discoveries, have fun, open your eyes. This may sound simple, but I think it’s still useful. Changing your perspective means going back. Recall that the first two travel guides, Michelin and Joanne, followed the road network and railway lines respectively. Rediscovering this joy of travel, for example by train, feels great. We make the vehicle part of the experience.

Living, micro-adventures, slow travel… Are these concepts changing the way we travel?
These are trends, as they usually are. tree houses, caravans, van trips… Travel remains an industry, it needs to be constantly updated, offer different experiences, as we would develop new products. But all these phenomena contribute to the democratization of travel. As with glamping, so is glamorous camping, which has made staying in a tent fashionable again. With this abundant offering, professionals recommend and travelers have.

We must also learn to forgo some travel to save the planet…
Is this travel education possible? I want to believe it. More and more people are realizing the importance of traveling more responsibly, and I want to remain optimistic.

Understand the world. It is the ideal of a gentleman with an enlightened mind

Gavin’s Clemente-Ruiz

A round-trip flight from Paris to New York emits as much carbon as each of us must produce in a year. How to understand these limitations?
I hope that new means will allow us to travel in other ways, like hydrogen. But it is so. forgoing travel in the name of the environment and then considering an alternative allows for an ecological approach. We can also stay longer in a place, favor the residents and local actors, ensure that our money goes to them, get to know them… We consume, of course, but to understand the world. This is the ideal of a gentleman with an enlightened mind.

How do you feel this tension yourself?
I am asked more and more often if I am ashamed of traveling so much. I have never experienced this, although I am very aware of the climate crisis. I revisit cities or regions that I see moving in the wrong direction. I will never forget the week I spent in Beijing, during which I saw a twenty-story hotel being built. Will I promote it? No, of course, I prefer other addresses. Like one of them in Bangkok, on the water’s edge, where we eat vegetables grown an hour away by boat… It all takes a little research to pick a destination or address, but I’m sure the future of travel. will also involve a different relationship with time.

Can we look for a new source of pleasure there?
Yes, our readers tell us a lot about it. there is joy in preparation, in finding the best route, in original accommodation, with locals, for example in meeting people on the spot or in the best ways to reduce carbon. footprint… This extra effort can represent an economic and environmental gain, I believe, so we can continue the journey. Not to mention the simplest and most affordable stationary trips: reading, watching a movie, looking at a picture, writing, drawing… The main thing is to indulge in something new, to get out of the bad rut. A craftsman recently told me that pottery transports him. This is what travel does to us. it transports us, projects us elsewhere, and makes us become other than ourselves. The journey is about letting go. To let yourself into it is to discover yourself more alive.