You Have a New Match! an excited beige box shouts at me. I had clicked on my dating app accidentally the night before while trying to open another app that starts with the same letter. I slide my finger over my phone’s surface, intending to shut the notification off. Instead, I launch the app.
Instantly, a dark-haired Parisian wearing a slim-fitting black leather jacket smiles at me from his profile photo. I’m sitting on a wicker chair, in a tiny open-air café next to the Tuileries, sipping my espresso on a small, wobbly round table, having traveled by myself to Paris from the U.S., where I live.
What sense would it make to chat with this man? I wonder. Where would it go? Why would he click on my obviously American profile? Are Parisians interested in chubby, half-Asian women? I pick up my espresso and let the rich, velvety coffee aroma clear my thoughts down to the type of question that can either forge a new life path or land me as the main character on a true crime podcast: Why the hell not?
A deliberate swipe right and a few engaging text exchanges later, and Tea Boat* (how he taught me to pronounce his French name), age 32, single, Scorpio, blood type B, a transplant from the south of France, and I decide to drink coffee together in the 2nd arrondissement the following day.
I’d thought I was the only one who had discovered the pleasures of dating while traveling solo. Then I met Danika* (not her real name), a Russian traveler who enjoyed a three-day whirlwind romance while visiting Brooklyn this past December. She had opened Tinder looking for company after her friend contracted COVID. Then a former classmate of mine told me she also connected deeply with an app date while traveling through Europe over the summer and has been chatting with him long-distance ever since.
According to a 2018 survey conducted by Plenty of Fish, 49% of its users have gone on a date while on vacation, and another 46% at least open their dating apps to check out local singles while visiting another city. Apparently, swiping right on vacation is a waaaaaay more common practice than I realized.
So, how did my date with Tea Boat go? We sat, facing one another, crammed between other patrons in Café du Centre. He ordered a cafe au lait while I, hungry from my morning’s 20,000-step dash around Paris, requested a beef tartare. Tea Boat stared directly into my eyes and asked questions about my upbringing, dating history and romance philosophies. He referred to himself…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Women…