15 49.0138 8.38624 both 0 bullet 0 4000 1 0 horizontal https://www.messynessychic.com 300 4000
Tag / road trip

Wild Card Destination du Jour: Southern Indiana’s Failed Utopia

What put Southern Indiana on our radar? Mysterious utopian experiments and end-of-the-world 19th century religious cults of course! The beautiful historic town called New Harmony was once home to a esoteric doomsday group of German pioneers called the Harmonists, who had a taste for quirky architecture and kooky modern ideas like equal rights and free…
The Vault

Found Photographs of Perfect American Road Trips, Fifty Years Too Late

Trailer parks just don’t look like this anymore! What I wouldn’t give to go back 50 years and re-do the American road trip just like I picture it in my mid-century kodachrome dreams. Today I found a fabulous Flickr account full of old slides and photographs found at estate sales and garage sales by a nostalgic…

Pssst! You've stumbled across content that is exclusive to Nessy's Keyholders.

There’s a new way to access the really special stuff from Messy Nessy Chic …

Hidden beneath the surface layers of the internet, there’s a place where we keep our most secret addresses, untapped archives, creator’s inspiration,  collector’s guides, explorer’s manuals, obscure research and much more… And it’s made for our keyholders only!

Apply now to unlock the Vault
Keyholder Login

The Bittersweet Story of the World’s First Motel

It’s as American as Apple Pie in all its neon-lit glory, evoking our collective cultural memory of 1950s road-tripping, film noir fugitive hideouts and the golden age of kitsch. The motel is as much a part of the American open road as the gas station and the roadside diner, an indispensable amenity to the roving motorist; the…
The Vault

The Villages Where Provence Meets the Côte d’Azur

You might want to pour yourself a cold glass of rosé before you begin browsing this post, maybe play some Jacques Brel; it only seems right. I left Paris and floated down south this weekend in search of sun, sea and Provençale pastels. Join me for a little tour of a ridiculously charming village or two… There is no better…

Pssst! You've stumbled across content that is exclusive to Nessy's Keyholders.

There’s a new way to access the really special stuff from Messy Nessy Chic …

Hidden beneath the surface layers of the internet, there’s a place where we keep our most secret addresses, untapped archives, creator’s inspiration,  collector’s guides, explorer’s manuals, obscure research and much more… And it’s made for our keyholders only!

Apply now to unlock the Vault
Keyholder Login

Forget Route 66: Get Your Road Trip Kicks on Route 62

Sun-bleached buildings, a hot convertible, and the smell of a dusty roadside town. There’s nothing more American than a stretch of quiet highway, and photographer Ashley Noelle has been on a quest to capture its old haunts before time and decay beat her to it. “I started at the beginning of route 62 and the…

Greetings, from Home Sweet Hole N’ the Rock

We interrupt your life above ground for some unsolicited subterranean splendour. It’s just a quick pit stop off the humble Highway 191 in eastern Utah. But poke your head inside, and you’ll discover a 5,000 square foot home fully equipped for life beyond the Stone Age. It goes to show that just when you think…

American Vacations of the 1900s in Color

Tourism just ain’t what it used to be. I stumbled upon this incredible archive of tinted photochromes from the dawn of the 19th century hiding away in the Beinecke rare books and manuscript library. Published by the Detroit Photographic (which no longer exists), the firm’s photographers travelled the country snapping the sights of North America to be…

The Lost Art of the Miniature Golf Course

They go large in the States – even when it comes to the small stuff. And perhaps nowhere is that more true than with a particularly kitsch specimen of American vernacular architecture, the miniature golf course. A period of history defined by the automobile and the ease of travel it allowed, post-WW2 prosperity led to…

10 Reasons to Visit the Only Country Where North Koreans Can Take a Permanent Vacation

When I first began researching Kyrgyzstan, a country I’d honestly never heard of, bordering China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, I thought I was going to be discovering a mini North Korea. For Kyrgyzstan is the only country in the world where North Korean citizens can stay for an unlimited amount of time (if they can manage to get past…

Forget Roadside America, Let’s Location Scout in “Weird France”

I’ve been yearning to get back across the pond for a good ol’ dose of “weird America”, but I tend to forget that my own country has some pretty odd, quirky and wonderfully nostalgic sights to see when you venture off the main road. Wes Anderson would have a field day with Atlas des Régions…
1 2 … 5
Visit Us!
Our Paris shop is open
Paris Restaurant Guide
Unlock the Vault
Weekend & City Guides
Unlock the Vault
ABOUT NESSY
Mum & Dad named me Vanessa, but you can call me Nessy.

INSTAGRAM