When Shylo Malcolm’s week in Cuba came to an end, she assumed her vacation romance was ending, too.
Not that she wanted the romance to be over — far from it. Shylo just assumed all vacation flirtations have an obvious end date.
“I didn’t want to get my hopes up,” Shylo tells CNN Travel today.
To her surprise, the object of her affections, Frenchman Yann Dervaux, was keen to share numbers, emails and social media information. In fact, he told her they’d “stay in touch.”
“Yeah, right,” Shylo thought.
She was returning to her life in Ontario, Canada. Yann was going back to his home near Lille, France. Over 3,500 miles would soon stretch between them.
Still, when Shylo boarded her flight back home, she surprised herself by not feeling sad. Instead, she felt a twinge of excitement.
“I’d had such an amazing week, and maybe we wouldn’t see each other again, the future was uncertain,” recalls Shylo. “But I went to Cuba, had the best vacation, had fun with my friends, and I met him …”
Meeting in Cuba
Shylo’s trip to Cuba coincided with her 27th birthday in the summer of 2016. When she imagined turning 27, Shylo envisaged herself lounging on a beach, a drink in her hand, the sun’s warm rays on her skin.
Shylo recruited two of her oldest and best friends — persuading them with the allure of beaches and cocktails aplenty. The trio picked a resort in coastal Varadero, Cuba, known for its stretch of sandy beaches and vibrant bars.
“We were ready to have fun, party it up,” recalls Shylo.
But when the trio arrived at their hotel late one June evening, Shylo had to swallow her disappointment. Nothing seemed to be open, and no one seemed to be around. It definitely wasn’t the party atmosphere she’d anticipated.
Still, after walking around the resort, Shylo and her friends eventually tracked down the only bar at the resort showing signs of life.
They walked inside and glanced around. It was pretty empty. A soccer game blared from a television, and a handful of guys were sitting, beers in hand, watching the screen.
Shylo and her friends raised eyebrows at one another. This still was not the vibe they were after. But they decided if the party wasn’t coming to them, they would have to bring the party. So the trio went to the bar, ordered a round of fruity cocktails and grabbed a table.
Before long, a couple of the guys in the bar turned their attention away from the soccer and to the group of women.
“We all just started talking,” recalls Shylo.
A couple of the men were German — Germany, it turned out, was the soccer team playing that evening. While the German guys were happy to chat to Shylo and her group, they were still half-watching the game.
But one of the guys was French and less bothered by the soccer happenings. And when he mentioned he was French, Shylo was intrigued — she’d always been a bit of a Francophile, dreaming of visiting Paris. Helping matters, Shylo and her friends were all French speakers. Their high school had run a French immersion program, where some of the classes took place entirely in French.
“My friends and I were excited to practice our French, since we hadn’t used it in years,” Shylo recalls. “Immediately we were having a good time.”
The Frenchman — of course — was Yann, a 29-year-old tech expert from who was in Varadero with a group of friends, all of whom had retreated to bed before Shylo and her friends turned up that night.
Shylo thought Yann seemed friendly and sweet but didn’t immediately pinpoint him as a romantic prospect.
Yann, on the other hand, fell for Shylo right away.
“I remember I looked at Shylo, and she was beautiful,” he tells CNN Travel today. “And also attractive — the way she was speaking, and she seemed so happy.”
More rounds of drinks were ordered. The soccer game ended, and the German guys left. But Yann, Shylo and her friends were still in full swing.
“We ended up hanging out late that night,” says Shylo. “Then we went to the beach. I don’t even know what time it was. We were up into the early hours of the morning, hanging out as a group.”
For Shylo, the prospect of a romantic connection with Yann didn’t cross her mind until the group got down onto the beach. Shylo’s two friends suggested a nighttime swim and immediately ran into the water and started frolicking in the ocean. Meanwhile, Shylo stood back. It looked fun, but she was more than a little apprehensive about the inky black water, illuminated only by moonlight.
“I don’t like going into the water when I can’t see,” says Shylo. “Everyone was being spontaneous and going out into the ocean. And I was like, ‘No, I’m not going to do that.’ ”
Noticing Shylo’s hesitance, Yann suggested they could go in together. He offered to give Shylo a piggyback to keep her at a decent distance from the murky depths.
“Come, I’ll take you on my back,” he said, smiling.
Something about Yann’s presence — teamed with Dutch courage from multiple rounds of fruity cocktails — reassured Shylo. She agreed, leaping onto his back.
And that’s when it happened. Shylo realized Yann wasn’t just helping her counter her fear of the ocean. This was definitely flirting
As they waded into the water, laughing and splashing Shylo’s friends as they went, Yann started whispering “sweet nothings” in Shylo’s ear, telling her she was “très belle.”
Growing closer
It was flattering, and Shylo allowed herself to get swept up in the moment. Still, deep down she remained a little skeptical, assuming Yann was a player who said that kind of thing to all the women he encountered. She figured he’d disappear as soon as they left the beach.
But to her surprise, over the next week, Shylo kept crossing paths with Yann.
Often Yann was out on day trips during the day, exploring Cuba with his friends. Meanwhile Shylo and her traveling party enjoyed relaxing by the pool.
“But we usually found each other, as a group, at night,” says Shylo. “And as the week went on, and we spent more time talking, feelings of romance were definitely there. We enjoyed each other company, and the chemistry between us was great, too.”
“Little by little, we talked a little bit more in depth about our lives,” recalls Yann. “We hung out as a group, but Shylo and I were always side by side. I was attracted to her and I liked her joy, her way of thinking and every evening we were looking for each other so we could spend more time together.”
Shylo and Yann’s friends were aware of their obvious connection.
“My friends were like, ‘You’re on vacation, live it up,’” recalls Shylo. “They said, ‘You don’t know if you’re going to see him, but just have fun while you’re here, get to know him.’ They were supportive in that way.”
Meanwhile Yann’s friends could see he was falling for Shylo and teased him that it was a “crazy way” to meet someone.
“But they were happy for me,” he says.
As Yann and Shylo grew more comfortable with each other, they started spending more time with no one else around. It was exciting, but for Shylo, the excitement was also laced with a tinge of panic.
“I was like, ‘I’m getting in over my head. I’m kind of screwing myself over,’ ” she recalls. ‘I thought, ‘This guy’s going to go back to France and he’s so nice and kind to me, but we’re going to go from seeing each other all the time to not seeing each other at all, and then I’m going to have to get over this guy that I just met.’”
Shylo had to stop herself mourning the end of the connection before it began. She tried to enjoy the moment.
Then, when it came to saying goodbye, things with Yann were left open-ended.
That’s why Shylo figured they’d never see each other again. And assuming the worst was a bit of self-protection, as much as anything else.
Yann was more hopeful. And when he told Shylo they’d “stay in touch,” he meant it. He looked her up on Facebook as soon as he got home from Cuba and sent a friend request.
And when Shylo got home and checked her socials and emails, she spotted the Facebook notification. She was surprised but pleased — and the excitement she’d been tentatively feeling on the airplane spilled out into full on happiness.
“I thought, ‘OK maybe he’s not going to totally disappear on me,’ ” she says. “This could work.”
Long distance
After all Shylo’s fears about the vacation romance not lasting and Yann dropping off the face of the Earth, staying in touch happened quite seamlessly, to her surprise.
“We ended up talking every single day,” she recalls. “Sending pictures, lots of pictures.”
In Cuba, they’d largely communicated in French. Now the messages were a mix of “broken French, broken English.”
“Google Translate helped a lot,” says Yann.
“We also had some video chat dates, although it was hard because of the time difference,” adds Shylo.
On one of their video calls, when Yann was talking about France, an idea crossed Shylo’s mind.
“I’d dreamt of going to Paris forever, and I was like, ‘This guy lives in France, maybe we could kill two birds with one stone, I could finally get to see Paris, and I could see this guy again …’ ” Shylo recalls.
At first, Shylo dismissed the idea as “kind of crazy.”
“We’d been talking for two months, and I met him once,” she says, “But then I just decided to look up flights, and I found some flights that weren’t too expensive.”
When she mentioned the idea to Yann, he was immediately enthusiastic. He encouraged her to book the tickets.
“I was really happy to have the opportunity to see her again,” Yann says. “We had shared great memories together when we met, I wanted to share these same moments again.”
And so at the end of August 2016 — a couple of months after the Cuba trip — Shylo arrived at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, ready to spend a few days there with Yann, before they went to Paris together.
On the journey over, Shylo was wracked with nervous excitement about reuniting with Yann.
“I was like, ‘OK, how is this interaction gonna be? Do we hug? Do we kiss?’ I was just going over, over and over it,” she recalls.
In the end, their reunion was “a little awkward” but in a sweet way, as Shylo recalls it.
“We were both kind of shy and didn’t know what to do,” says Shylo. “We had a little hug, and then started walking together. But then as the day progressed, we got more comfortable.”
Yann was happy that they soon settled back into the easy conversation they’d enjoyed in Cuba.
“When we were together over those Cuba evenings, we would always talk to each other, learn everything about each other,” he says. “And when we met in Europe, it was the same mood. We were very happy to see each other again.”
It was also exciting for Yann and Shylo to spend time without any friends around, to see how they might work as a couple.
“I wanted to see how it would be to be together, how you interact with each other,” says Yann. “It was really important to me to experience that.”
Shylo was also encouraged by the fact she felt very cared for by Yann. She was a little apprehensive about being in Europe for the first time, but he made her feel at ease.
“He took care of finding accommodation, and planned out activities,” she recalls. “I went for two weeks. And we packed a lot into those two weeks.”
The highlight of the trip was the time Yann and Shylo spent together in Paris.
“Every day he took me to nice restaurants,” Shylo recalls. “It was such an amazing time. It was like a dream come true for me. I’d been dreaming of it, and then getting to go with this guy who was so sweet. No one had ever spoken to me, how he spoke to me.”
When Shylo’s time in Europe came to an end, there were no longer any question marks in her head about whether she and Yann would stay in touch. Yann promised to come and visit Canada a couple of months later, around the holiday season, and he kept to his word.
“I wanted to see her as soon as possible,” says Yann.
This trip happened to coincide with Yann taking a break between jobs, which allowed him to spend six weeks in Ontario with Shylo.
“I took him to see all the things here,” says Shylo. “And because he was here for a longer period of time, we lived together.”
It was a taste of what a life together full time might look like.
Shylo also introduced Yann to more of her loved ones, who had time to get to know him over the six weeks, including at a New Year’s Eve party that Shylo hosted.
“Everybody loved him,” she says.
Closing the distance
From then on, Shylo and Yann saw each other every couple of months — visiting one another in France and Canada, and also traveling the globe together — taking vacations to destinations including the Dominican Republic, New Zealand and the UK.
“We always had a really good time,” says Shylo, with Yann adding that the time they spent together was filled with “powerful moments.”
In between, the time spent apart was always tough.
“It’s just not the same, seeing somebody through the screen,” says Shylo.
The couple navigated the ups and downs of long distance for some years. They enjoyed some incredible adventures together, but by 2019, they were looking for ways to be together longer term.
“We needed to figure out how to close the distance,” says Shylo.
Thanks to Shylo’s love of France, the couple had always imagined she might be the one to move. But by the time they came to discuss the idea more seriously, Shylo’s family ties to Canada made the thought of relocating across the world less appealing.
“My family was growing at the time, both my sisters had young kids, and I was a little worried about missing out on them growing up, because we’re a pretty close family,” says Shylo. “We do all the holidays together. We do family dinners and stuff like that. So it would have been really hard for me to leave.”
For the first time, the couple talked seriously about the idea of Yann relocating to Canada. Yann was open to the idea — he’d grown to love Ontario over the years. He started looking into the logistics of making this dream happen.
“And then in November 2019, he came and never left,” says Shylo.
It was an exciting step — and a little surreal that after almost four years of traveling across the globe to visit one another, Yann and Shylo were finally living together. It wasn’t always an easy transition.
Speaking “Frenglish,” as Shylo describes it, sometimes led to miscommunication.
“Add in that he’s a European White male and I’m a Canadian with Jamaican roots Black girl, we’ve definitely come across our share of differences,” she says. “But we manage it and talk things out and try to communicate a little more to avoid problems.”
“There was a lot of navigating to do. But I’m thankful that he is a very loving person, which is perfect for me.”
Yann also highlights Shylo’s “kindness and joy” as some of his favorite traits of hers, as well as “the spontaneity, the projects and ideas she comes up with and so much more …”
Navigating the challenges of living together fulltime only made Shylo and Yann stronger. And in time, Yann became more anchored in Canada. He took English classes to perfect the language. He got a job he enjoyed in the tech world. He got closer to Shylo’s family and friends. Yann and Shylo felt more connected than ever.
A proposal and marriage
After a few years of living together in Canada, Yann and Shylo found themselves discussing marriage. It was something they’d talked about before, but as the pandemic waned, the couple began considering the prospect more seriously.
“I said, ‘I don’t want to just be a girlfriend forever. It’s important for me, for us, to get married,’” Shylo recalls. “Then Yann started looking at rings, and he proposed with my whole family here, which was really nice.”
The proposal, in early 2023, was a surprise for Shylo. Her family had gathered together under the guise of celebrating her sister’s birthday.
“Almost everyone was in on it, letting me believe we were having a birthday gathering when in actuality, Yann was going to purpose,” says Shylo. “It perfect that everyone was there for this special moment.”
“We were married a couple months later, because we’d already been together seven years. We felt like we didn’t need a long engagement.”
The wedding took place in spring 2023, in Canada, with Yann calling it “a wonderful day.”
“Shylo was beautiful,” he says.
“We rented an Airbnb on a lake and kept it small to just immediate family and bestest friends,” adds Shylo. “It was a crazy day that went by so fast, but it turned out to be absolutely beautiful and everyone enjoyed themselves.”
Looking to the future
Today, Shylo and Yann are still basking in the joy of their wedding, having enjoyed an extended “extra honeymoon period,” as Shylo puts it. Shylo’s also busy with her business, designing, making and selling travel-themed gifts. She’s also got a blog, “Simply Blessed Shy” where she chronicles her travel adventures with Yann.
“We travel really well together,” says Shylo. “And the fact that he loves traveling just as much as I do, it’s great. He’s my favorite travel buddy.”
It’s fitting, says Shylo, that they met and fell in love while traveling.
“We met on vacation, he was in France, and I’m from Canada, and we ended up choosing the same resort and being there for almost the same amount of time,” reflects Shylo. “I don’t know if it’s fate. Yann thinks it is. I guess it was meant to be.”
