Today I’m tackling a topic that might make you wonder what it has to do with a travel blog. But it was actually on a trip through the South of France, here in Saint-Tropez, that I started thinking about it. Because the contrast between what life feels like in Munich and in St. Tropez is pretty striking.

Anyone who lives in a big city knows it: life is fast. Full of appointments, deadlines, obligations. Even with close friends, you have to plan weeks in advance. Spontaneity? Almost impossible. St. Tropez, which still carries the charm of the old fishing village from the 60s, feels like the opposite: calmer, lighter, more beautiful. A different frequency. No constant rushing from one appointment to the next, no endless flood of information and events, no permanent availability and none of that subtle pressure to always be better, faster, more efficient.

And at some point I thought:
this can’t go on like this.
Something is wrong.

Shortly after, I came across an interview with Gunter Sachs recorded in 1997, but only recently fully released. I couldn’t get it out of my head. What you could feel in that interview was this sense of freedom from back then when the world didn’t know the internet yet, when jet set life wasn’t constantly on Instagram, when we didn’t have the “perfect lives” of others in front of us all the time. Today, when almost everyone is online and present on social media, we constantly see the perfectly constructed lives of others, compare ourselves, put pressure on ourselves, monitor each other and judge when something doesn’t fit the narrative. Shaming, blaming and cancel culture didn’t become common terms for no reason.

„The place and… Bardot brought with them a philosophy that was completely new. They wanted to be individualists and live their philosophy of life freely. That was real freedom.“

Gunter Sachs, 1997

The world and our role models have become much more complex. And almost impossible to live up to. We try to be better professionals, better mothers, better versions of ourselves all at the same time. Always perfectly styled, in a good mood, sporty, organized, prepared for everything. Self-optimization, efficiency thinking, mindset, biohacking, self branding. When I wake up, the first thing I do is open Instagram and see how, by 8 a.m., other people already have their kids ready for school, a perfect breakfast on the table, a workout done, meditation finished, fresh bread and three cakes baked, two meetings completed and on top of that, half a business built. Meanwhile, I’m standing in the bathroom at 8:30 with messy hair, trying to wake up. The face in the mirror is definitely far from the “best version” of myself. And every time I scroll through my feed, I feel like everyone else has their life completely under control and I’m the only one constantly failing.

Another reason why life today feels mentally so uncomfortable, in my opinion, is that we as humans are simply not built for this kind of speed. Twenty years ago, a B2B order would take days and often ran via fax. Today, everything happens in seconds, and anyone who is professionally active receives a constant flood of emails. According to scientists, the human brain hasn’t really changed since the Stone Age certainly not accelerated but technology has. So here we are, modern humans with our Stone Age brains, trying to keep up with all of it and master it perfectly. As a result, statistics show that in Germany, every second person feels at risk of burnout.

„The new generation feels much more suffocated. In the post-war years, the world was very open to new things and above all, to enthusiasm. Today it’s much harder to stand out. You go with the flow much more and can’t really break free into a certain individuality. We had it easier.“

Gunter Sachs, 1997

We’re standing with one foot in yesterday and the other already in tomorrow. No wonder it feels so uncomfortable that’s the price of progress.

And maybe that’s exactly the problem. It doesn’t just take away the freedom Günter Sachs was talking about, but also the creativity every life needs to unfold. We’re in a transitional phase into a new era that has, in many ways, already begun. One foot still in the past, the other already in the future. No wonder it feels this way. I accept that. I benefit from technology, I see the opportunities AI brings, and I’m open to everything new. But sometimes it all becomes too much and then I just want to escape to St. Tropez. To a place where time seems to have stood still, where the spirit of the 60s is still alive, and where I can take a small break from all of it.

For me personally, St. Tropez has become something like a protected space a place where I don’t have to function at full speed. Its small streets, the little beach that has barely changed since the days of Brigitte Bardot and Roger Vadim, Senequier, and the white yachts in the Gulf of Saint-Tropez all remind me of a time before this global acceleration when life felt different. More carefree. More open. More spontaneous. Simply more alive. So imperfect. And so beautiful.

Do you also live in a big city or somewhere smaller?
And do you have places that help you slow down?

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