And we're off...

Hemingway makes an unusual appearance at "La Closerie des Lilas" in White Plains to mark the inauguration of Travellati Tours.   

We celebrated the launch of Travellati Tours last Wednesday with a quick jaunt to Paris.

We were delighted to make the acquaintance of new friends – and to welcome old ones – as everyone got a bit tight on good French wine at the anemone spangled tables of "La Closerie des Lilas," White Plains edition.

Our lovely patrons who ventured out for "An Evening with Hemingway." 

Hemingway was our featured guest for the evening in a reversal of the charming movie Midnight in Paris. Hem was rather shocked that he had somehow journeyed through time and space to White Plains and a year when people keep tiny phones in their pockets. He didn’t seem too fazed, though, as he scribbled in his notebook and reminisced on the great minds of the “lost” generation who drank together in the bars of Montparnasse. 

As usual, Hem’s thoughts wandered to the process of writing, explaining to those around him that “an idea is like a fish.”

Beautiful smiles at our very own La Closerie des Lilas. 

“You’ll be sitting there for hours just writing and writing the worst material – and I mean real garbage– but you just gotta keep casting your lure,” Hemingway espoused. “Out it goes and back in it comes. And when you finally snag it – I don’t care if your own mother, St. Peter, or Elijah himself appears – do not stop writing until you have it.”

In case you missed the event, you can see a short video of Hemingway sharing his stories and his wit with the crowd.  

While it was a charming affair, we anticipate meeting Hemingway and some of his friends in the real Paris this Summer. We have two tour dates for 2016:

• June 17-26
• July 15-24
   

Details on our Papa's Paris tour are available here.

Happy travels,

Liz  

Meet the Founder

Some folks have been asking about the woman playing puppeteer behind the Travellati Tours' curtain. So, here's my story.

Fifty-six years ago, I was born in Paris to a German mother and American father. We all spoke French, ate French, and I guess, acted French. We moved to Cincinnati (my Dad's hometown) when I was 18 months old, then moved back to Paris six months later, then back to Cincy 5 years later, all by ocean liner. When I was 12, we moved to Edgewater, New Jersey (ed-ghe-va-ter, my Oma said). My younger brother and I spent three summers with my Oma in Germany, where we learned German.

After taking a year off after high school to work, I entered Barnard and put myself through school – working full time while also singing in the chorus and being a coxswain on the crew, where I met my husband.

We got married the day after graduation, then the following day packed our bicycles into the trunk of a taxi and headed for the airport. We spent five months bicycling and camping throughout Europe on a shoestring budget. This was the most rewarding and memorable time of my life.

When we returned, we worked in a bike shop in the City and spent August on his family's land in New Hampshire, where we wanted to build a log home. After my reading up on architecture for years, we started to build the house with our own two hands.

After that, I had a brief career in the garment industry as a production manager, then worked as a bilingual executive assistant. After teaching myself programming and building an application for my company in my spare time, I enrolled in a computer technologies program at Columbia.

I got into the field at the tail end of the dot com boom and was able to advance rapidly within project management. I often traveled to Europe on business which reignited my love of travel. Thirteen years later, I became a consultant for a software company. I loved that job and my colleagues were great and I traveled a lot, but, unfortunately, it became a victim of the economic downturn.

I had been thinking about starting my own travel business for quite a long time and had been taking classes in entrepreneurship and developing my business plan. Now, I have the opportunity to work on my business full time, providing themed, interactive tours to international destinations. The groups will be small – 6-12 guests – and feature custom theatrical, musical, and dance experiences.

Currently, I am busy preparing for our upcoming trips: "Papa's Paris" – where we'll "run into" Hemingway and his coterie; and "Bowie's Berlin," an homage to Bowie where we'll "meet" the artist and his entourage. In the meantime, Penelope and I will be sharing travel tips and insights with you through these newsletters as well as on our Facebook page.

– Liz

Meet Penelope Peabody

My name is Penelope Peabody, the official spokesperson for Travellati Tours. I am the woman you've seen riding a bicycle with a stream of colorful hats trailing behind. (I must say, the drawing adds 10 pounds!) It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.

A few years ago, I took a sabbatical from my job as a marketing director and decided to travel through Europe for three months. I had just turned 51 and realized I was no longer thrilled by my job. I found myself just going through the motions so I knew I needed to re-set. 
 
I began my trip in Tuscany, working my way through small villages of stone and marble. I drank espresso in the courtyards of monasteries that hosted travelers, where the sunshine on the terra-cotta brick blurred into a single memory of tangelo and blue skies. 
 
I moved into a converted farmhouse set in rolling olive orchards. I knew I was on to something when one night the farmhouse owner directed me to a stone house set in the middle of nowhere for supper. The matron offered me the option of two pastas for a primo and either steak or rabbit for the main course. The pasta was rich and chewy, and flavorful in a way that I did not know flour-egg-salt-and-water could be. The steak melted in my mouth.

Subsequently, I stayed in the Latin Quarter of Paris for a month where I indulged in a nightly routine of drinking absinthe in various establishments and then meandering home. I went on to Berlin for another month where I was dumbfounded by the breadth of the history, architecture – and sheer size – of the city.

Friends often came to visit me during my travels. The first couple flew in from Chicago and rushed around for a week with great anxiety that they wouldn’t see everything in their guidebook. They spent evenings planning their days. They got lost on the subway and couldn’t figure out the bus. They ate mediocre food at restaurants with too many tourists just like them. They were too hurried to talk to anyone except for the occasional waiter, who, inevitably, was too hurried to talk to them.
 
Quickly, I realized their dilemma. My American friends had no focal point, so they ran after everything and left feeling they had experienced nothing. I feared that they had not enjoyed themselves nor dived into the charms of the city.
 
I decided something needed to be done. My friends needed an insider to curate their experience so that they could emerge from tourist mode. Someone to organize the tedious details so that they could relax and have some fun. They work hard at home; they deserve a vacation that works for them! Thus, Travellati was born!
 
Currently, I am preparing for our upcoming trips: "Papa's Paris" -- where we'll "run into" Hemingway and his coterie; and "Bowie's Berlin," an homage to Bowie where we'll "meet" the artist and his entourage. In the meantime, I will be sharing travel tips and insights with you through these newsletters as well as on our Facebook page and Twitter feed. 

– Penny

Welcome to Travellati

My name is Liz Kemble and I am proud to introduce you to Travellati Tours, providing themed, interactive travel tours to international destinations. The groups will be intimate – 6 to 12 guests – and feature custom theatrical and dance experiences. At Travellati Tours, we believe travel should above all be fun, and add color and playfulness to our lives.
 
A one-week "Papa’s Paris" tour is set to debut in June 2016. I don’t want to give too much away, but let’s just say we’ll run into some rather interesting former denizens of Paris along our route, including Papa Hemingway himself.
 
Our Travellati Tours spokesperson, Penelope Peabody, will be sending you brief and amusing tidbits every couple of weeks about travel in general and our travel tours in particular. You can also check out her musings on Facebook. Our website should be up and running in a few weeks – we’ll give you a heads up when it is!
 
Thank you for subscribing to the Travellati Tours newsletter. We are so glad to have you along for the ride!

– Liz