Last May, Texas Tourism and American Airlines organized a Fam Trip with tourism professionals to make them discover the still unknown region of Big Bend.
5 French Tour Operators (only women!!) flied to Texas on last May 18^th

From left to right: Raphaelle Amaudric (Texas Tourism), Clémentine Dellenbach (Marco Vasco), Isabelle Proust (American Airlines), , Sandrine Danois (Voyageurs du Monde), Nadège Brousseau (Maison des Etats-Unis), Laetitia Morel (Jetset Voyages), Charlène Diaz (Vacances Transat)

After a long flight to Dallas (in which we had been lucky to try the Premium Economy on the new AA Dreamliner aircraft) and then a second 1 hour flight to reach Midland, we finally tread the land of Texas for the first time.

We spent our first night in the region of Midland & Odessa, at the core of the Permian basin at the very West side of Texas, key region for the petrol industry for the whole State and the country. The morning after our arrival, we took the direction of the Big Bend National Park, the true reason of our trip, where we’ll be going back and forth for a week.

Beyond the fact that the Big Bend National park is a true wonder of nature, it’s one of the major national parks of the U.S, and yet the least frequented! For comparison, around 300 000 people visit the Big Bend National Park every year (against 5 million for Grand Canyon)….Enough to give the impression to every visitor entering the park to be a great explorer discovering new and wild lands!

Extending over 3200km2, the park offers a wide variety of landscapes that combine desert, mountains and canyons, bounded on the south by the famous Rio Grande which marks the border between Texas and Mexico (we double checked and hopefully, no trace of a wall in construction by the way :-))

On the program: canoeing, horseback riding, trekking, observation of the flora with more than 1200 species of plants, and wildlife with more than 3 600 different species. We have been told that there are also even bears but we did not checked this info by ourselves!

Beyond the National Park, the Big Bend county is full of small villages, ghost towns that are iconic of a rich and traditional history specific to the West of the State, such as Alpine, Fort Davis, Terlingua or Marfa, that become overnight an unmissable destination for art contemporary lovers and the “hipster” community from all over the world.

Prada Marfa, the famous fake Prada store, artwork settled in the middle of desert on Highway 90.

Usually largely unknown, sometimes denigrated, Texas has suffered from a controversial image in France over the last years, often only considered as the land of cowboys & barbecues in French people’s mind.

And yet, Texas has so much to offer, from the matchless Texan’s hospitality towards tourists, their good mood & spirit, their atypical cities….and their breathtaking landscapes.

Enthusiasts looking for new lands to conquer, take note! It all happens here so go ahead!