A story about a place, more than a guidebook can offer…

Photo by Pedro Lastra on Unsplash

A little over 25 years ago I went backpacking through Europe with my sister. We each had one of those thick paperback (think small phonebook) European travel guides with details on hostels and hotels, quirky museums to visit, tours, and things to do in various cities we were headed to.

Before mobile phones and information quickly available at your fingertips, this was the only way to travel reliably and quickly find a place to stay. Adventure happened along the way. These travel books are really useful for travelers who are fascinated by their destination and hungry to learn more.

Flash forward to 2003, when I found myself on a Christmas visit to Paris, somewhat unprepared for my trip. We had a week to spend in Paris on our own, then head south to spend Christmas and New Year with my in-laws. Work had been unforgiving leading up to the trip, and I had no time to plan anything.

On the flight over, I started reading a hardcover copy of “The DaVinci Code,” by Dan Brown. It had just come out and wasn’t that popular yet. As I’m reading this exciting overnight adventure taking place all over Paris, I found myself dropping in locations from the story into the itineraries we were planning day by day during our visit. Instead of piecing together snippets of locations from a travel guide, I was influenced to visit locations based on the story I was reading. The idea of this stuck with me.

Months later I read an article in the travel section of the newspaper about a church mentioned in the book, that supposedly had a secret panel with a clue inside. The church was so overrun with tourists holding copies of The DaVinci Code, they had to close off that section and place signs about how the story was fiction and there was no secret panel.

I was impressed at how much power this made-up story had over actual travel. Not only was I influenced to stop by the Louvre, but people were actually exploring Paris based on locations mentioned in the story.

This was something I wanted to attempt to capture in my story, Separated on the Paris Metro. I wanted to write something kids would enjoy, regardless if they were traveling to Paris. But also something if they were visiting this incredible city, they could use the book to enhance their visit.

There are quite a number of kids related travel books, but quite often they seem to miss the mark, and don’t really enhance the visit. A Paris themed word search or crossword really isn’t going to make my trip to Paris any better. But a story that has you invested in the characters, who visit a creperie after sketching flowers in the Luxembourg Gardens, on their way to the Shakespeare & Company bookstore might tempt young readers to request any of these locations in their visit to the City of Lights.

Isn’t finding a way to motivate young visitors on a trip of a lifetime to participate in the journey important? Maybe getting young readers curious to learn about locations they could visit one day will build excitement to read more?

Get them a copy of Separated on the Paris Metro, today!