TravelSexLife

How to Find the Ring

It was February. I had Yuki’s mother’s permission, our vacation was completely booked, and I had made final arrangements with Michel Bras to give us a table with privacy. Everything was set… except for the ring. I had two months left, and I had no idea what to do and where to start.

I’ve heard many beleaguered woes of men who have yielded several months salary to buy the ring, and yet when it comes to it, I don’t think money is the issue (No money = eat bananas = solved). The difficulty is selecting the ring itself. There are as many variations to ring possibilities as there are Google searches for “donkey sex,” which is to say, a lot. I should know – I read the analytics for TravelSexLife.

I could have been a millionaire and choosing a ring wouldn’t have been any easier. The
first few times I stepped into an engagement ring shop, I left disappointed and bewildered. It should have been easy to walk right in, take a look behind the counter, and say, “That’s it!” The problem was, even if I knew exactly what I wanted the ring to look like, I lacked the vocabulary for proper ring selection (The 4 C’s, of course. Hello? Anyone?). That, and I had no idea what she wanted. Continue reading →

How To Know When the Time is Right

On top of the Aubrac mountains in Laguiole, France, there sits a three-star Michelin restaurant and hotel by the name of Michel Bras. My girlfriend, Yuki, an admirer of the hospitality industry, had dreamt of coming to Michel Bras for a decade. Only open for six months a year, getting a table for dinner and a room for two, in addition to financing and planning a trip to France, and arranging for the transportation to get to Laguiole is, by no means, a simple feat.

Yet on April 18 of this year, there we sat. Outside, the snow stormed, inside, the atmosphere remained casual and decadent. Yuki was two glasses ahead of me on the wine, and took delight in each of the dishes as they were presented to us. Sitting there, taking a bite of something deliciously French, she declared that it was easily the best day of her life.

‘This is the time!’ I told myself, drumming my fingers across my suit jacket. I excused myself to the restroom, and felt my inside-pocket to double-check if it was still there.

It was – which could only mean one thing.

I was moments away from proposing.  Continue reading →