Over the weekend I had a major cram session for our upcoming trip to Paris. It’s the first time I really dug into all the material I’d been collecting the past several months and it’s the first time I felt truly excited about the trip. Up until then, I’d been so focused on other things that I hadn’t been able to enjoy planning or imagining how it would feel to be in Paris.
Evernote – activities by arrondissement
I used a combination of Evernote, Foursquare and Pinterest to organize my trip. In Evernote, I organized all the places I’m interested in seeing by their respective arrondissement. This way, I can coordinate other activities around the photography workshop itinerary. I included their address, hours and little details to remind me why I was interested. Following some good advice from Krafty Kath, I also created a calendar of the closures and holidays. That way, I won’t waste anytime showing up to a place with locked doors!
Foursquare – more places than time
Foursquare was a lifesaver for our trip to Tokyo. We used it for nearly everything – identifying places by the photos people posted of building exteriors, ordering dinner by pointing to the foodie shots (when we couldn’t read the menu), and discovering nearby places we would have otherwise overlooked. It was the perfect travel companion and so we will be using it again for Paris. All the restaurants, cafés and pastry shops we want to go to are also organized by arrondissement. Places of interests are currently lumped into one big list but may get sorted before the trip. There are far more places listed than we’ll have time for but it’s a good way to be prepared while flexible. If it turns out we have some time to spare while in a given neighborhood, we’ll have something to reference rather than just wing it.
Pinterest – eye candy
Finally, for Pinterest, I’m using it as a visual reference and reminder. For all the places I added to Evernote and Foursquare, I added pictures to Pinterest. When we’re back at the hotel after a long day and we’re too tired to think, Pinterest will be there to be our pretty reminder of the places yet to see.
There’s a lot left to do before we leave. Things to wrap up at home and work as well as planning. One way or another it will get done (or not) but regardless we’ll be Paris bound soon enough. I’m going to try and consciously enjoy these last couple days of planning rather than get consumed by my to do list.
I’ll keep you posted on how it all works out. If you have any tips or advice, send them my way!
Have a wonderful week!
