Texas Girl with French Name
Hi, I’m Amanda Bacqué. My grandfather used to say I had the French beauty and the Irish stubbornness — and he meant it as a compliment. I am not easy to crack and used to think being vulnerable would hurt me, but not being authentically me hurts more.
I listen more than I speak, I observe before I engage, and I take my time before I let people in. But once you are in my circle, you get all of me. The wit. The honesty. The woman who will sit with you, be fully present, no judgment, no agenda, and help guide you but without ever telling you what to do. That is where my warmth lives. Not in reassurance. In presence.
I am a healthcare executive with over two decades of leading from the inside of one of the most demanding always-on cultures that exists. I know what it costs to give everything to a career you are deeply committed to, because I have paid that cost and kept going.
When a career transition gave me an unexpected window between positions, I did something I had never done before. That’s where Rest, Reflection & Rosé comes in.
I booked a Paris apartment for a month and went to live, not visit. I got a metro pass. I went to the markets, boulangeries, wine and cheese shops and did not once play games on my phone. I read five books, and began to release into the slow pace of life.
Paris and I have a long history. She has been returning me to myself since my mother surprised me with a trip when I was 28 years old, fresh off my Master's degree and already running on empty. But this time I went deeper than I ever had. And what I found there became the foundation of everything I now build.
That month changed how I travel. And how I travel changed everything else.
“I didn’t just visit Paris. I visited a new version of me.”
Rest, Reflection & Rosé
Unfiltered Me
Bonjour, Y’all!
I barely know how to filter my photos, and I do not filter myself. What you see is what you get. My time is valuable and so is yours, so here is the real version of me.
I am a daughter, a sister, a best friend, a godmother, and the self-described single aunt to two nephews who make everything better. I love classic films, ballet, Broadway, fine dining and greasy dives, a well-made espresso, and the specific feeling of arriving somewhere slightly unfamiliar that makes my senses wake up.
I have places I return to because they feel like me, and new places I seek out because they make me slightly uncomfortable in the best possible way. I have a traveling gnome named Louis, who has been photographed all over the world. I believe in chic simplicity, in indulgence that is chosen rather than defaulted to, and in the kind of travel that grounds you rather than performs for anyone else.
I am not a therapist. I am not a travel agent.
I am the coach who listens until she understands exactly where you are and then helps you find exactly where you need to go next.
What Came Home with Me
Know Distance is built on everything I have lived. The leadership, the always-on culture, the guilt, the Paris mornings, the trips that disappointed me before I understood why, and the ones that gave me back to myself when I finally traveled with intention.
I did not leave my professional life to build this. I built this because I refused to lose myself inside it.
