About
Still Becoming.
Always moving.
The woman behind the blog
Hi, I’m Brooke.
I was never someone who wanted to live an ordinary life.
There has always been a feeling I was meant for more. That feeling of not settling. Through my twenties and thirties raising my kids, I quietly let that voice just be. Knowing one day I would act on it. I would do what I was always supposed to do.
When my kids became adults and started their own lives, I knew. It had been with me the entire time.
It was travel.
And that is what I did. I booked my first solo trip. Walking the Camino de Santiago Portuguese Coastal route. Twelve days. 170 miles. Seventeen pounds of gear. Every step I felt. And in the end I was lighter.
“My twenties and thirties belonged to my kids.
My forties belong to me.”
On my final evening in Porto, Portugal, on my way home. Watching the sunset over the Douro River from Dom Luís I Bridge. Sitting among strangers at golden hour, watching the boats glide by, all of us silent in the same direction for a few minutes. Music from the street performers somewhere below, drifting up. This is where I want to be. This is what I’m after now.
And I haven’t stopped moving since.
I’m a wander-the-cobblestones, walk-and-eat-all-day kind of traveler. The sounds of a new city, the colors of the produce stalls, the smell of fresh bread and the daily debate of whether I should get another croissant (I should).
If there’s something obscure to go see, I’m already on my way, like the time I took a small boat to Inisheer on the Aran Islands to find the Plassey shipwreck. The journey turned out to be the best part. Have you ever been seasick with a bunch of strangers off the coast of Ireland? Highly recommend.
Traveling solo, as a woman who spent twenty years putting everyone else first, feels radical. And exactly right.
I bring my camera, my drone, and myself. This is where I share it all — the trips, the photos, the moments worth stopping for.
Welcome to tabiétoile. Glad you’re here.
What you’ll find here
Three reasons to stay a while
01
The Journey
Travel writing from someone still figuring it out. Where I went, what it did to me, and what happened unexpectedly.
02
Etoile Moments
The memories you carry home from a trip. The ones that surface weeks later in an ordinary moment and remind you why you went.
03
Honest Notes
How to plan it, pack for it, do it solo, and actually fit it into a regular life. The kind of details I wish someone had told me before I went.
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If you’re standing at the edge of a new chapter — a little unsure, a little excited, not quite sure what comes next, I hope something here inspires you to take the first step.