On baby duty, I built you a map

You may have noticed that I’ve been sharing fewer travel recommendations than usual lately. It’s not that I’m working less (I’m still actively keeping watch and still hoping to cover the entire country and beyond). It’s just that, over the past few weeks, I’ve had fewer opportunities to travel: my son Ivo was born on Sunday, June 14th at 21H21.

I’m not yet entirely used to this new, more personal form of journalism that comes with running a newsletter like mine. I’m aware, though, that a large number of you follow me hoping to discover new addresses or find new travel destinations here. So I’ve been thinking about a system that would let me take the time to be a hands-on dad while not shortchanging you, my subscribers.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to say a few words about my approach. The places I recommend need recommendations to survive. I try, as much as possible, to avoid revealing “secrets” whose exposure would violate the privacy of long-time regulars, and I focus instead on committed places that deserve broader support. I’m well aware that I could grow my subscriber count by sharing the best Parisian restaurants or hidden addresses in the Marais, but I’d rather opt for slow growth and build an ethic that refuses to treat addresses as commodities designed to inflate my audience. In other words, my promise is to share places that I’ve loved, not places that might appeal to you, places I commit to having visited myself (or to saying so clearly when that’s not the case), and to offer you an editorial line that is subjective, personal, and shaped by genuine feeling.

I define that editorial line as follows: shining a light on those who make things, those who make them as well as they possibly can, offering products or services that respect the value chain, the environment, and the people involved in their production. I want to offer reasons for hope against the cult of performance and the flattening of taste. I value character over imperfection, and I promise you engagement.