{"id":74163,"date":"2014-07-18T13:47:07","date_gmt":"2014-07-18T17:47:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=74163"},"modified":"2014-07-20T20:52:07","modified_gmt":"2014-07-21T00:52:07","slug":"a-travel-tip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/07\/18\/a-travel-tip\/","title":{"rendered":"A Travel Tip"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"L'ILLUSTRATION_Journal_Universel_16_dec_1854\"<\/a>

An 1854 French advertisement<\/p><\/div>\n

Not too long ago, I was asked to contribute a travel tip to an article. I felt like a complete fraud, of course; my vacations, such as they were, consisted of the occasional bus visit to friends in D.C. and the odd weekend with my parents, heavy on historic sites. If I passed along any sort of \u201ctip,\u201d I risked conveying the impression that I was the sort of person who breezed through security with effortlessly straight hair, applied travel-size unguents in her seat, and, when she felt like napping, draped herself in an improbably large cashmere wrap. (This sort of person also had a roll for her jewelry, and\u00a0had a pricey makeup bag that, in a pinch, could double as a clutch.)<\/p>\n

I knew of no special hydrating sprays or extra-good earphones. I almost wrote, \u201cBring steak sandwiches,\u201d since this is in fact something I like to do when I travel. But certain standards must be maintained. So I recommended wearing a new perfume when one goes on a trip.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not advocating for the purchase of an expensive bottle every time you go to a cousin\u2019s wedding. But for me, the act of dignifying a journey with its own scent can be enough to elevate a humble getaway to vacation status. It\u2019s nice to find something that has a connection to wherever you are, but the actual perfume is secondary. The point is to create a sense memory for the experience that has, for you, no precedent. I\u2019ve worn the same perfume since my twenty-third birthday, when I treated myself to my first bottle of En Passant, but from the moment I get in the cab to the airport, I like to wear something different, unfamiliar.<\/p>\n

It should be a scent you can live with, of course, but it need not be one you love. I usually look for something inexpensive, in a travel roller; perfume samples are also perfect for this. I found an eau de toilette called Green Leaf in the LaGuardia terminal before leaving for this trip to Maine, and I have applied it religiously throughout my days here. Months later, I will be able to smell it and remember\u2014or not, as the case may be.<\/p>\n

I know it all sounds rather twee. \u201cI wish we could see perfumes as well as smell them. I\u2019m sure they would be very beautiful,\u201d\u00a0says Anne Shirley, in Anne of the Island<\/em>, when she is at maximum insipidity, and everyone is in love with her, and everything she does is ethereal and enrapturing and the relatable, human Anne of Green Gables<\/em> is a distant memory. Even by her standards, however, this is idiotic: a scent is a million times more transporting than an image. Stanislavski could have told her that. Because, really, that\u2019s what it\u2019s about, isn\u2019t it? You\u2019re creating a character: someone who travels, who\u2019s capable of relaxation and maybe even adventure, and who\u2014why not?\u2014has an improbably large cashmere wrap in her bag. Or pretends to.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not too long ago, I was asked to contribute a travel tip to an article. I felt like a complete fraud, of course; my vacations, such as they were, consisted of the occasional bus visit to friends in D.C. and the odd weekend with my parents, heavy on historic sites. If I passed along any […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13115],"tags":[8074,14664,959,4156,14663,123],"class_list":["post-74163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-daily-correspondent","tag-anne-of-green-gables","tag-eau-de-toilette","tag-maine","tag-perfume","tag-scents","tag-travel"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nA Travel Trip<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sadie Stein on creating a sense memory for an experience that has, for you, no precedent.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/07\/18\/a-travel-tip\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Travel Tip by Sadie Stein\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"July 18, 2014 \u2013 Not too long ago, I was asked to contribute a travel tip to an article. 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