Places, plates & the occasional pun.https://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/https://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/pines-popovers-park-loops-3-days-in-acadia/https://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/pines-popovers-park-loops-3-days-in-acadia/We spent three days in Acadia:, camping, and generally pretending to be the outdoorsy people we wish we were full-time (thanks 9-5 jobs!). Acadia delivered in every way - golden light on granite, trails that earned every single view, and the kind of quiet that makes your phone feel irrelevant. (I still took 400 photos. Obviously.)Mon, 18 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTTravelhttps://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/je-me-souviens-de-poutine-3-5-days-in-montreal/https://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/je-me-souviens-de-poutine-3-5-days-in-montreal/3.5 days in Montreal is not a lot of time, but it turns out it's exactly enough to eat your body weight in cheese curds and bagels, develop a very serious hazy IPA habit, and fall completely in love with a city that somehow feels like home and vacation at the same time.Wed, 29 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTTravelPardon My Franglaishttps://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/tour-de-fork-bike-packing-the-eurovelo-1/https://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/tour-de-fork-bike-packing-the-eurovelo-1/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.Fri, 17 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTTravelPardon My Franglaishttps://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/c-est-marseille-bebe/https://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/c-est-marseille-bebe/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!Fri, 08 Aug 2025 00:00:00 GMTPardon My FranglaisTravelFoodhttps://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/no-car-ca-roule-how-to-have-a-carbon-neutral-weekend-adventure/https://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/no-car-ca-roule-how-to-have-a-carbon-neutral-weekend-adventure/No car? No problem, tag along on our adventure on trains and bikes for a weekend getaway #ecofriendly style! Mon, 21 Jul 2025 00:00:00 GMTPardon My Franglaishttps://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/touloused-confused-my-coup-de-coeur-restaurants/https://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/touloused-confused-my-coup-de-coeur-restaurants/Discover the best Toulouse restaurants with my "Coup de Coeur" picks. From cozy bistros tucked away in the red bricks to modern spots that would make any foodie jealous, these are the best Toulouse restaurants that have earned a permanent place in my heart... and my weekly dinner rotation! Mon, 30 Jun 2025 00:00:00 GMTFoodTouloused & Confusedhttps://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/it-s-been-a-hot-second-2-years-if-we-re-counting/https://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/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! Thu, 17 Aug 2023 00:00:00 GMTPardon My Franglaishttps://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/randos-repos-a-long-weekend-in-the-pyrenees/https://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/randos-repos-a-long-weekend-in-the-pyrenees/A mini-vaction avec des copines dans les Pyrenees full of hikes, a pool, a rabbit and lots of laughs! Sun, 22 Aug 2021 00:00:00 GMTTravelPardon My Franglaishttps://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/a-colorful-weekend-in-collioure/https://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/a-colorful-weekend-in-collioure/We 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! Sat, 20 Mar 2021 00:00:00 GMTPardon My Franglaishttps://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/des-vacances-sportives/https://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/des-vacances-sportives/To 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!Sun, 27 Sep 2020 00:00:00 GMTTravelPardon My Franglaishttps://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/a-great-weekend-getaway-and-i-ain-t-lyon/https://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/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! Mon, 27 Jul 2020 00:00:00 GMTPardon My FranglaisTravelhttps://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/with-great-powder/https://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/with-great-powder/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 everyMon, 30 Mar 2020 00:00:00 GMTTravelPardon My Franglaishttps://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/beating-the-winter-blues/https://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/beating-the-winter-blues/Seriously, 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 touchesFri, 21 Feb 2020 00:00:00 GMTPardon My Franglaishttps://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/sleighin-it-december-19/https://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/sleighin-it-december-19/Coucou 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!Sun, 26 Jan 2020 00:00:00 GMTPardon My FranglaisTravelhttps://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/pumpkin-spicing-it-up-november-2019/https://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/pumpkin-spicing-it-up-november-2019/Coucou 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 ...Fri, 06 Dec 2019 00:00:00 GMTPardon My Franglaishttps://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/my-first-month-in-toulouse/https://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/my-first-month-in-toulouse/I 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.Sat, 26 Oct 2019 00:00:00 GMTPardon My Franglaishttps://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/a-summer-life-update/https://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/a-summer-life-update/Hello! 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 ..Fri, 20 Sep 2019 00:00:00 GMTPardon My Franglaishttps://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/feeling-gold-in-the-golden-triangle/https://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/feeling-gold-in-the-golden-triangle/if you're just tuning in, i'm on holiday in South Asia! check out part 1, part 2, and part 3. We had another early morning flight from Goa and we braved the monsoon while driving to the airport. The flight was pretty uneventful except for some turbulence in the beginning and we touched down in New Delhi ...Thu, 19 Sep 2019 00:00:00 GMTTravelhttps://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/let-s-go-a/https://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/let-s-go-a/Our first morning in Goa, we let ourselves sleep in a bit and grabbed breakfast around 9:30 in the lobby. The hotel had a huge buffet of local Indian foods so we loaded up (as much as I could, the food was starting to take a toll on me!). The highlight for sure was the homemade dosa and the chai. We headed out ...Wed, 18 Sep 2019 00:00:00 GMTTravelhttps://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/let-s-maldives-right-in/https://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/let-s-maldives-right-in/[We're on vacation in Southeast Asia! Read about part 1 in Mumbai here.] 6 am came way too early for 2 jet lagged international travelers (Dad and I) and 1 overworked researcher (Claire) but we made it to the airport via taxi, with our suitcases riding on top. We went through security - boys and girls separate ...Thu, 12 Sep 2019 00:00:00 GMTTravelhttps://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/mumbye-america-hello-india/https://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/mumbye-america-hello-india/Our trip to India started way back in June, when I started planning for my Dad to visit my sister Claire after she was finished doing research at a prestigious lab doing groundbreaking experiments on Alzheimer’s #proudsister. Claire kept asking me if I was coming and I kept putting it off ...Wed, 21 Aug 2019 00:00:00 GMTTravelhttps://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/andiamo-a-cinque-terre/https://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/andiamo-a-cinque-terre/Tuesday morning I got up bright and early to meet my (ex 😭) housemate Melissa at her new apartment ... we were doing a little getaway to Cinque Terre! We grabbed our bags, the dog and some pastries and headed to the train station. We made it to Ventimiglia, just across the Italian border,Mon, 22 Jul 2019 00:00:00 GMTTravelhttps://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/end-of-april-updates/https://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/end-of-april-updates/After 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 !Fri, 19 Jul 2019 00:00:00 GMTPardon My Franglaishttps://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/obrigada-portugal/https://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/obrigada-portugal/We arrived in Porto late Saturday night and headed straight to our hostel. Luckily, it was right off the metro line since it had started to rain. We checked ourselves in to this escape-room style lodging with a code to get into the main building door, another code to get in our apartment door, a third code to get ...Wed, 10 Jul 2019 00:00:00 GMTTravelhttps://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/printemps-a-paris-blessed-in-barcelona/https://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/printemps-a-paris-blessed-in-barcelona/Getting up at 5 am is only exciting when I know I’m heading to Paris!! Or on holiday (again)! We started with a little bump in the road when, on Sunday night, I was texting my travel partner for the next 2 weeks Kass. I said I was excited to see her the next day and she responded saying she wasn’t landing until Tuesday morning! In my planning excitement, I had gotten the dates mixed up! So at 1:30 am I figured out I could change my train ticket and Les Filles de Chateauneuf decided to cook a delWed, 12 Jun 2019 00:00:00 GMTTravelhttps://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/des-voyages-entre-villes/https://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/des-voyages-entre-villes/Villefranche 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.Mon, 10 Jun 2019 00:00:00 GMTPardon My Franglaishttps://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/it-s-all-greek-to-me-part-2-milos-santorini/https://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/it-s-all-greek-to-me-part-2-milos-santorini/My little sister Claire and I were doing spring break in Greece together! Catch up and read Part 1 here. We left Athens after grabbing some breakfast, frappes and yogurt and pancakes (gotta have some variety!) and successfully grabbed the metro to head to the airport on time.Wed, 22 May 2019 00:00:00 GMTTravelhttps://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/ello-and-au-revoir-a-year-s-tapif-recap/https://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/ello-and-au-revoir-a-year-s-tapif-recap/Imaginez 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 CIEPMon, 29 Apr 2019 00:00:00 GMTPardon My Franglaishttps://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/it-s-all-greek-to-me-part-1/https://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/it-s-all-greek-to-me-part-1/Mamma Mia vibes only for these past 2 weeks! I headed off to school with a huge, orange backpack (borrowed from Katie - thanks bud!) with everything I would need for 10 days in Athens and a few Greek islands ... that’s right, it was my little sister Claire’s spring breakWed, 24 Apr 2019 00:00:00 GMTTravelhttps://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/carnival-craziness/https://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/carnival-craziness/I 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 ...Thu, 04 Apr 2019 00:00:00 GMTPardon My Franglaishttps://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/a-tourist-in-my-own-city/https://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/a-tourist-in-my-own-city/I 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.Thu, 28 Mar 2019 00:00:00 GMTPardon My Franglaishttps://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/ski-you-later/https://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/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.Thu, 07 Mar 2019 00:00:00 GMTPardon My Franglaishttps://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/add-three-letters-to-paris-and-you-have-paradise/https://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/add-three-letters-to-paris-and-you-have-paradise/Youpi ! 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).Thu, 28 Feb 2019 00:00:00 GMTTravelPardon My Franglaishttps://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/around-the-world-in-3-weeks/https://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/around-the-world-in-3-weeks/Coucou ! or should I say Ciao or Gutentag .... aka its a very special edition of Pardon My Franglais (drumroll please!) The fam came to visit! We had one helluva an aventure these past 3 weeks starting in Rome, heading down the Amalfi Coast, flying to Munich, driving to Nuremburg for Christmas.Sun, 06 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMTTravelhttps://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/marching-around-the-christmas-markets/https://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/marching-around-the-christmas-markets/It'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.Mon, 24 Dec 2018 00:00:00 GMTPardon My FranglaisFoodTravelhttps://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/the-one-with-italy-the-alps-and-the-fog/https://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/the-one-with-italy-the-alps-and-the-fog/Coucou 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!?)Fri, 23 Nov 2018 00:00:00 GMTPardon My FranglaisTravelhttps://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/budapest-aka-buda-best/https://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/budapest-aka-buda-best/We got to Budapest in about 3 hours from Bratislava and checked into our super nice AirBnb! We stayed in Buda, pretty close to the river. The city is actually two cities - Buda and Pest which were combined 1873.Tue, 06 Nov 2018 00:00:00 GMTTravelhttps://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/s-love-akia/https://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/s-love-akia/Taking buses through Eastern Europe is definitely the way to go - especially when the only cost 5 euros and come with a free coffee and entertainment systems! It only took about an hour to cross over the border into Slovakia from Vienna.We managed to figure out the bus system and make it to our AirBnB on the 9th floor of an old apartment building across the Danube from the downtown Bratislava. The downside to this was that the elevator looked like it had been built with the building and shuddereTue, 30 Oct 2018 00:00:00 GMTTravelhttps://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/austria-was-a-wiener/https://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/austria-was-a-wiener/The next morning, the Prague pals split and I headed to Vienna. Or at least tried to. I left the AirBnb with a little under hour to take the 20 minute walk to the station and some extra time to grab a coffee for my train ride. Suitcase in hand, I had an average walk ... until the last 5 minutes.Sun, 28 Oct 2018 00:00:00 GMTTravelhttps://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/czech-ing-out-prague/https://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/czech-ing-out-prague/Tuesday morning, I left Madrid (with one last bocadillo sandwich) and spent most of the day at the airport or in the air or on the Prague metro to get to my next break location – the Czech Republic! The metro was pretty easy to use and I was at the AirBnb with no problems.Thu, 25 Oct 2018 00:00:00 GMTTravelhttps://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/vamos-a-madrid/https://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/vamos-a-madrid/Bonnes vacances ! Happy break! After a solid three weeks of teaching (one of which was just introducing myself) we totally deserved a two-week break. So, Friday I took myself to the beach to celebrate the start of vacation. Saturday morning, I woke up and headed to the airport to fly to MadridTue, 23 Oct 2018 00:00:00 GMTTravelhttps://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/feelin-22-in-france/https://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/feelin-22-in-france/What 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.Wed, 17 Oct 2018 00:00:00 GMTPardon My Franglaishttps://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/orienting-myself/https://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/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.Fri, 05 Oct 2018 00:00:00 GMTPardon My Franglaishttps://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/it-s-going-to-be-a-nice-year/https://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/it-s-going-to-be-a-nice-year/Salut 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….Sat, 29 Sep 2018 00:00:00 GMTPardon My Franglaishttps://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/the-visa-struggle-is-real/https://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/the-visa-struggle-is-real/Coucou 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.Thu, 16 Aug 2018 00:00:00 GMTPardon My Franglaishttps://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/pre-departure-panic/https://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/pre-departure-panic/Bonjour! We're t-minus 90 (!!!) days until my flight to Nice and believe me when I say its been quite the ride!Thu, 28 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMTPardon My Franglaishttps://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/abroad-blog/https://www.forkspoonandstraw.com/posts/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!Thu, 19 Jan 2017 00:00:00 GMTPardon My Franglais