What Is True Luxury? A Personal Reflection

True luxury wasn’t where I expected to find it.
It appeared elsewhere, gradually.

When we think of “luxury,” we often picture the same scene:
red sports cars, brand names, showing off, the urge to impress.

I’ve seen it up close, brushed against it now and then.
And to be honest: when it isn’t about showing off, that kind of luxury can also be about excellence.
The quality of impeccable service. A genuine care for useful detail. An art of doing things well.

That kind of luxury can be meaningful, as long as it serves a real experience — not a facade.
But it’s only part of the picture.
And it’s not the part that struck me the most.

Listen to this article in audio

This text also exists in audio form, in episode 2 of
Vivre Librement — Audio Journals.
A more personal reading about true luxury, travel, the desert, Asia, and what truly nourishes us.

The luxury that costs almost nothing

My relationship with luxury changed mostly far from shop windows, in settings that have nothing to do with what we call “luxury.”

At 21, I traveled for the first time.
Egypt. The Sinai.
A few days with a Bedouin and a camel, carrying only the essentials.

At night, the sky had an incredible density.
Stars everywhere, as if they’d all arranged to meet above us.
The fire crackled softly. A total, dense silence.

In that moment, I analyzed nothing. I wasn’t trying to understand.
I simply felt good. Present. A simple, obvious feeling.

It was only later, back in the “normal course” of life, that I thought back to that moment.
And wondered why such a stripped-down experience had left such a strong impression.

Understanding through walking

A few years later, in Niger.
A dirt market, curious looks, and an older Tuareg man helping me choose two camels for a month-long walk in the Aïr desert, at the gates of the Ténéré.
This Tuareg would be my guide and companion.

He examined the animals the way one chooses travel companions.
In the desert, everything must be an ally, not an adversary to fight.

I bought them knowing they’d be sold again at the end of the journey — the goal obviously wasn’t to bring them back to France ;).

I wanted to live something directly connected to the force of the elements.

The first days were hard on the body, but that fades quickly once you’re moving.
After that, what remains is slowness, space, silence, calm and minimal conversations.
A way of walking that puts everything back into perspective.

Here again, it was mostly afterward that I understood how deeply this experience had touched me.
How it had revealed what did me good, what soothed me, what brought me back to something simple and true.

Luxury isn’t a category, it’s a movement

For me, luxury doesn’t have a single definition.
It isn’t fixed, nor universal.
It evolves with us: with our needs, our inner seasons, our questions.

For some, it will be material.
For others, it will be peace and quiet. Or the chance to live something rare.

But for many — even if we forget it — luxury often takes other forms:

the time we truly give ourselves
the quality of the relationships we maintain
the freedom to choose what’s good for us
listening to what resonates within

And there’s also this more discreet, human luxury that I found again in Indonesia and in many parts of Asia:
the natural smile, the simple welcome, the way of being there for others without calculation.
Even when the service is clumsy, imperfect, sometimes surprising, there’s a warmth that makes up for everything else.
A way of connecting that soothes through its simplicity.

These aren’t fixed definitions. Just reference points.
Things we rediscover as soon as we step a little away from the noise.

Living by what moves us forward

Over the years, I’ve understood that my own luxury is often found in simple things:

walking somewhere I can breathe
taking the time to listen to the sea, the mountains, or silence
sharing a moment with genuine people
learning as I go
lightening my load when I feel weighed down
adjusting my direction when something no longer feels right
gaining, little by little, more independence and coherence

That kind of luxury doesn’t require being heroic or having certainties.
It mostly requires paying attention to what truly nourishes us, and being willing to question what we thought was set in stone.

It isn’t a destination.
It’s a path.

Why I’m telling you this here

This blog was born from that inner shift.
From a moment when something quietly moved, when I felt a cycle was coming to an end.
It wasn’t a rejection. Just a quiet realization: I needed to lighten my load, learn again, and return to simpler things.

I don’t hold any absolute truth.
I’m sharing a journey, experiences, reflections.
Moments that helped me understand what did me good, what soothed me, what brought me into alignment.

What I call “luxury” today isn’t extraordinary.
These are experiences many people have already lived or could live.
Accessible things, often discreet, sometimes already there but no longer noticed.

This blog is my notebook for exploring all of this.
For putting words to what truly matters.
For moving forward, step by step, toward a more deliberately chosen life.

To understand what drove me to create this site, you can read the page:

➡️ “Why this blog exists” (in French)