IT sounds like he needs to learn how to travel on the cheap.
Right here in good ole USA, I got 5 weeks paid vacation on the 1st day I started. OK so it was a government job. Not only that, I could accumulate almost 9 weeks of vacation if I did not use all my vacation days. It was horrible I tell you :-) It costs lot of money to entertain yourself when not stuck in office 8 hours a day.
Read more books. Really I had let my vacation run into the cap, so I wound up taking a week off every other month to not lose time and burn a little. Then we got bought by a company that has a vacation policy of use it, no or, so in order to burn through my bank and my earned time in that first year (their demand) I took off a week every month. It was great, spent a lot of time on the bike trails, in the pool, read a ton of books. I learned then I was emotionally prepared to retire the minute I have enough money. That first year back to normal 4 week vacation SUCKED.
All those restaurants like Rainforest Cafe and Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville and Hard Rock Cafe to go to with the overpriced drinks and loud music. The constant din of children saying "I'm bored" and "I want to ride Space Mountain". Then you wait for two hours at Space Mountain and when you finally get to the end of the line, the child gets scared and doesn't want to go on the ride after all. Now he just wants to go get ice cream. Another line.
On one vacation, my station wagon broke down in the middle of nowhere, just like Chevy Chase, and we spent two days at some West Virginia motel sitting around the dirty pool, eating at Waffle House and constantly feeding the kids money to go play games at the video arcade in the nearby strip mall. Now that was comparatively relaxing, I got to actually read a book or two.
Mr. Mercat and I are stressing out (only mildly) because being retired, we could travel almost anytime we want anywhere. The fact is, after working hard for decades, I want to hang out at home. Maybe it’s because I have a nice home. Plenty of room, I have Amazon Prime so lots of really good TV to watch. A kindle with lots of really good books to read. We don’t want to spend lots of money traveling so we would end up without a lot of luxuries we have here. So my goals are to travel to see the one kid who doesn’t live here, and we have a few friends who have wanted us to visit for years.
Old saying in the South:
“Why should I travel? I’m already here!”
We go to Hilton Head Island a week at a time, not expensive outside of high season (when the temperatures are highest), several times a year. Then we went to a colleague’s wedding in Ottawa, easy two day drive one way and we knew we were in a foreign country. U.S. Customs searched our vehicle & made us wait after they scanned our passports (wife & I are retired military, Republican, NRA); a “random” search of course, yeah, right.
While in Canada I made a list of all the things we left behind. Billboard French was everywhere in Ontario; the Anglophones truly hate the forced bilingualism.
Have not yet gotten the travel bug. And when I find it, I’m going to smash it.
If you normally vacation at a place like Hilton Head which people travel hundreds of miles to get to (two hour drive for us), aren’t you `already there’?
Back in the pre-internet days, I had a job where I worked 3 1/2 days a week putting in forty hours, and was off 3 1/2 days a week. It was okay, but you could spend yourself broke trying to stay entertained.
Stay home at your beautiful French home. Learn to garden, eat at great local restaurants, visit your local farmers market and read and write. Invite friends over for American barbeque. Sounds like a great book in the offering - Those Crazy French!
He’s being very silly. He just needs to take on a large project (like writing a book or remodeling his house) and work on that. He could get something worthwhile done with that time.
I guess he’s never heard of hobbies. You don’t need a fortune to work in a garden at home.
He mentions he’s a writer. He can write freelance. He’s not very creative for a writer.