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Pardon My Franglais
Expat life, in two languages, sometimes at the same time.
30 entries
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Tour de Fork: Bike-packing the Eurovelo 1 (May 2025)Welcome to our bike-packing Eurovelo 1 adventure - from Sète to Spain, 4 days, 275 km, and a few sore muscles at the end of the day.
c'est Marseille bébé !C'est pas la capitale ... but it's perfect for a weekend or even week trip getaway! My favorite sights, spots, and of course restaurants!
No Car? Ça Roule ! 🚲 | How to Have a Carbon-Neutral Weekend AdventureNo car? No problem, tag along on our adventure on trains and bikes for a weekend getaway #ecofriendly style!
It's been a hot second (2 years if we're counting)What I've been up to for the past 2 years or so!
Randos & Repos: A Long Weekend in the PyrenéesA mini-vaction avec des copines dans les Pyrenees full of hikes, a pool, a rabbit and lots of laughs!
A Colorful Weekend in CollioureWe headed to Collioure on the French seaside for a weekend getaway entre copains for hiking, exploring little villages, and of course lots of good eats!
Des Vacances Sportives: 1 week in l'AveryonTo say 2020 has been different than I imagined is the understatement of the year. Still so blessed to be able to go on vacation with friends!
A Great Weekend Getaway... and I Ain't [Lyon]2020 has been off to a rocky start, so I was more than happy to take a long weekend off and head to Lyon with some of my copines!
With Great [Powder] Comes Great Responsibility! (Work Seminar `20)The last Wednesday en fevrier the Picta'Team had an early start to their mornings because on partait en séminaire ! It was the annual work seminar, although chez nous it's more of a work retreat! My suitcase was packed and I battled the rain to get picked up by my collègue and we headed to work a bit earlier than usual. Everyone arrived on time and got their morning café and we loaded up on the bus and headed out! Direction ... Andorre and the Pyrenees! We had about 3 hours on the road and every
Beating the Winter BluesSeriously, how is January both the fastest and the slowest month of the year?! It seems like it’s been this month for several years now … not all complaints because I’ve been up to lots of fun aventures! 

Like I said in my last post, we recently moved office spaces! We’re still waiting for some final touches
Sleighin' It - December '19Coucou les ami.es ! Everyone at work wasn’t kidding when they said December is our busiest month … and pair that with holiday parties and housewarmings and it’s been a sacré (helluva) month. Not to worry - the Picta’Team knows how to unwind and we proved we were more knotty than nice when we got massages at work!
(Pumpkin) Spicing it Up - November 2019Coucou friends and family! It's been a second since the last blog post ... and let me just say a lot has happened! shout out to my colleague for reminding me that I should update my fans, followers, and people I know about life in France. 😁 Exciting news! I am no longer homeless! (Ok woah woah #dramatic ...
My First Month in ToulouseI started my journey to Toulouse at 4 am on the 25th of September... Well not my journey so to speak, we had to drop Dad off at the airport and then head back to pack my last bag before we left for Boston. 2 suitcases, 1 carryon, and 1 shipped duffel later and I was en route.
A Summer Life UpdateHello! Bonjour ! I've been catching up on my sleep from all my travel this past year and summer (living in Nice, visiting Eastern Europe, a trip to Greece, a summer holiday in the Maldives ...) and of course blogging all about it! I came back to the States in mid-May and after a week catching up with my grandparents ..
End of April updatesAfter I came back from Spring Break with Kass in Spain and Portugal, Melissa had some friends staying in Nice so we did a few winery tours, got some classic niçois foods and went to Èze and Villefranche for the afternoon. I had Easter Monday off so I had a long work-week of 1 day ... tant pis !
Des voyages entre villesVillefranche sur Mer The weather has been so gorgeous, we all wanted to go to a sandy beach! Nice is nice, but we needed a change from the pebbles and rocks. Friday morning, Katie and I headed out on 2 stops on the train to Villefranche-sur-Mer for the afternoon.
'ello and au revoir: a year's TAPIF recapImaginez que you work 12 hours a week, 2-3 days a week, with minimal outside work except for creating the occasional PowerPoint on Halloween or popular American songs … Sounds like a dream, doesn’t it?! Well welcome to my life for the past seven months. As an English Language Assistant through the CIEP
Carnival CrazinessI always knew Carnival (or Carnaval in French) was a huge thing in Rio and Venice, but it turns out that Nice has the 3rd largest celebration in the world! A bit before February break, I started noticing some changes aka some bleachers set up in Masséna, gates along the Promenade ...
A Tourist in My Own CityI was super lucky to have two friends come visit me in February and the beginning of March! It was so great to see them and also let me be a tourist in Nice. My friend Isabelle came right after i got back from Paris so we both were wiped from our long journeys.
Ski You Later!(or ... all the times we failed while going skiing) Coucou from les Alpes! Mel and I spontaneously decided to join some friends on a ski trip to Auron this past Friday. We had always talked about going skiing for the day and it seemed like the perfect time since it was the last week of break.
add three letters to Paris, and you have ParadiseYoupi ! The only thing worth waking up for at 5 am for is a weekend trip to Paris – and what better way to commencer our February break? Les filles de Chateauneuf headed out of the apartment before the sun was up and only stopped once to pee on the walk to the train station (not naming names .. *cough cough* Hallie).
Marching around the Christmas MarketsIt's the most punderful time of the year ... and this year I'm in Europe to experience the markets! Around the beginning of December, we started to see the first steps of setting up the Marché de Noël in Nice. The market is in Jardin Albert 1er which is right downtown, next to the famous Place Masséna.
The One with Italy, the Alps and the FogCoucou à tous et à toutes ! It’s your favorite mountain goat here back from vacation — my housemates’ friends came to visit these past 2 weeks so I’ve been tagging along on all their aventures. The first trip was to Monaco for a few hours (what is my life!?)
Feelin' 22 in FranceWhat better way to start the next year of your life in a foreign country! Birthday week kicked off with a 5:45 am wakeup call to prendre le bus with the students to go to school. I even managed to sleep (I think) for a bit on the hour and a half ride up.
Orienting Myself ...... aka Monday was our first "official" day of orientation! Les filles de Châteauneuf woke up nice and early and managed to get halfway to the rectorat (French school board building) without morning coffee.
it's going to be a NICE yearSalut à tous! If you’re reading this, I am no longer homeless in Nice. And can breathe a (huge) sigh of relief. But I’ll back up a little and fill you all in on mes aventures these past few days….
the (visa) struggle is realCoucou tout le monde ! Hello everyone - In a classic scene from my life movie - I took a small journey to get my visa and (as always) hit a few bumps in the road.
Pre-departure PanicBonjour! We're t-minus 90 (!!!) days until my flight to Nice and believe me when I say its been quite the ride!
Abroad blog!Salut tlm! If you're looking for some blogs on my time abroad in Paris, France in 2017, feel free to click on the link to my old site for some more stories, pics and (of course) puns!