Hello (or Ciao), I’m Belle. 

I’m a 29 year old designer and business owner from Sydney, Australia. 

Those of you that know me might be familiar with my habit of spending as much time as possible in the European Summer. I also have a penchant for French words and phrases, like my other brain child Avant Studio.

I recently asked myself what I liked to do outside of work. It was a struggle to find something I enjoyed more than travel (or planning to travel). En Vacances is something personal to me that I want to share with you and here is a small anecdote on how it came to be. 

I speak for myself, ( and I assume many others) when experiencing the feeling of travel envy, glued to your instagram feed when its summer in the northern hemisphere. This feeling started for me whilst studying (or procrastinating) through my final year of high school as I watched the girls in the year above me exploring far away places with colourful seaside facades, cobbled streets and turquoise waters. Suffice to say, study was certainly overshadowed by my priority of planning a European gap year adventure.

Over 5 months of bliss, I travelled to incredible places and managed to document my journey on the formerly popular Tumblr. Once back in Sydney when real (adult) life began, my travel diaries fell by the wayside and whenever I returned to Europe, instagram photos became the alternative to a blog. 

During the last 10 years I have been lucky enough to spend a significant amount of time visiting and revisiting the cities of Europe almost every euro summer. Following each trip, there was always a small regret that I hadn't maintained a dedicated and more detailed record for all my adventures. 

Of recent years, to my delight, I have received countless enquiries from both friends and people unknown to me, asking for travel recommendations. After my reply to each message I would start to wonder why I wasn’t keeping a record. Now, I’m thrilled to announce, I finally have!

En Vacances is an ever-growing information hub - curated by yours truly. Travel research takes hours and unlike me, not everyone finds pleasure in staring at maps and sifting through trip advisor prior to their holidays. Gone are the days of travel agents - the days of thoroughly researched, curated travel guides has just begun!