Who I am
Julien. I run, I travel, and I film both. On social media, I am Ju.en.vie.
This site is not just another travel blog. It is where I keep everything that was useful to me on the road, so I do not have to explain it again in private messages every time someone asks.
28, from Toulouse. I spent the last five years in Paris as a PE teacher. Today I am in Australia, on a working holiday.
I did not resign: I am on leave, with the option of going back to the French national education system. Honestly, I do not really want to. I mention it because many people who read this site are in exactly that moment, wondering whether to cut everything or keep a thread.
Before
Five years at university in Toulouse, a sports science degree and then a teaching master's to become a teacher. At the same time, I was already building my projects: Ju.en.vie for sport and travel, and Julien Invest for investing and personal finance.
Travel
I was lucky to travel a lot with my parents when I was young. I took a plane alone for the first time at 15, to visit a magician friend in Switzerland. I actually had a magic YouTube channel fifteen years ago, in the early days of the platform.
My first real solo trip to the other side of the world was for my 18th birthday, in Canada. For ten years now, I have left every year, alone, with friends or with family. In recent years, mostly to Southeast Asia, which explains why most of the guides on this site come from there.
Sport
Sport all my life, including fifteen years of club swimming. I always ran a bit, but I got serious about it in 2022.
My biggest achievement is still the Paris marathon in 2024, and not for the time: because before I really got into it, I was a bit overweight. It is the kind of thing people do not often say, so I am putting it here.
In Paris, I joined the Ciel Bleu Running Club, where I got very involved, especially in the club's communication and visuals.
Why this site rather than Instagram
Because here I can go much further. Complete itineraries, precise tips, and everything in one place, including links to my videos when they explain things better than text.
It is also where I keep my discount codes and best deals, and it is the best place to contact me if you want us to plan your trip together.
Why this site exists
At first, a simple link in an Instagram bio. Then the same questions coming back. Which insurance to leave for six months. Which bank to avoid fees. Which eSIM in Asia. Which drone fits in a bag.
Answering twenty times a month in private messages does not scale, and above all it gets lost. A website stays. You can search it, compare, and come back to it six months later.
Hence two things here. Resource pages, sorted by use, with what I really use. And travel guides, destination by destination, written the way I would have wanted them before leaving: the real itinerary, the real budget, and what we would have been better off knowing.
How I choose what I recommend
Three rules, and they do not change.
I have used it
A product only ends up on this site if I have used it, or if I would sincerely recommend it to a friend in the same situation. Nothing is added because a brand asked for it.
I also mention the downsides
Every product card has at least one downside. A review without flaws is not a review, it is an ad. If a product only has good points, it means I have not used it enough.
I do not fill the gaps
When I am missing information, it stays empty rather than being guessed. You will not find any made up budget here, or any anecdote borrowed from someone else.
That is also why some cards still show Coming soon. The partnership is not signed, or I do not have enough perspective to talk about it yet. I prefer an empty box to a hollow link.
How the site is funded
Through affiliate links, and I would rather write it in black and white than hide it in small print at the bottom of the page.
When you use a link on this site to open an account, book an activity or buy gear, the brand pays me a commission. The price you pay does not change. In many cases it goes down, because the link comes with a discount code.
What it changes for you: nothing on the price, everything on the content. These commissions pay for the hosting and the time spent writing the guides, which lets me keep the site completely free and ad free.
What it does not change: the order of the recommendations. I do not rank products by commission rate. Several partners mentioned here earn me nothing at all, and they stay because they are good.
Where I have been
The destinations I have documented here, with the full itinerary and what I took away from them.
What is coming
A Working Holiday in Australia. It is the next big chapter, and a whole section of the site is already dedicated to it: the visa, insurance, budget, the paperwork on arrival, the job search and the 88 days.
Everything written there today comes from official sources, checked one by one. Once I am there, it will become lived experience, and I will update the pages as I go rather than let a fixed guide grow old.
Contact me
For a question about a destination, a correction to report or a collaboration proposal, the simplest is Instagram. I reply myself.
If any information on this site is wrong or out of date, tell me. A corrected page is worth more than a page that looks old.
Brands and collaborations
If you represent a brand, a hotel or a tourist board, my media kit brings together the formats I produce, my audience and what I have already done. It is in English.
Page checked and updated on .