leaving france (again)

Hi everyone! Happy July. 

So, today, my family is leaving France and moving into their new house in Scotland.

This past year has literally been such a bizarre year where my parents are involved. First, they wanted to move to France permanently. Then, they wanted only wanted a holiday home in France. Then, they thought again to live there permanently. And then, they randomly bought a house in Scotland. 

So that is where we are going today. 

I'm excited to go back to Scotland. I get to see my extended family and  I can fulfil my year-long craving for Sainsbury's jam doughnuts. 

But, I do feel a little sentimental about leaving France. I really like it here. I like going out in the morning to buy a baguette and get a café au lait. And I know I can do these things in Scotland (and Canada) but it's just not the same, you know? 

I hope I come to France again one day. Part of me thinks I definitely will, but then at the same time, I don't really have a reason to. I suppose travelling is a good enough reason, yeah, but if I'm going to travel a country in Europe, I should go to one I've never been to, right? 

But then again, I have no idea what the future holds. Heck, maybe I'll buy an apartment in France. Like a really cute one with high ceilings and a porcelain sink in the kitchen. Oh oh, and one with a little bakery downstairs where I'll go for my daily baguette!

Maybe that will happen, maybe not, who knows?

Anyway, I'm going to end this post here because I don't have much more to say. 

Last night, there was one of those purpley-pinky sunsets which I love. It's so nice to just sit out, relax, and take in the colours, you know? At the same time, though, it was 9pm and it was still 30 degrees when I took these pictures so the night wasn't perfect... but it was pretty good!

marseille, france

Hi everyone!

This past weekend, I visited Marseille. It was my first time being in the city. I was a bit surprised, to be honest. It was quieter than I expected, it didn't feel like a big, busy city. Montpellier seems to have more people -- but maybe it's because the area we were staying in, or the time of year.

Regardless, it was a good time. As always, my sister and I tried to explore as much as the city as we could, and I wanted to share a bit of what we done and what I would recommend other visitors to do!

Places to See

Le Vieux Port 

The old port has been in use since the 7th century, making it a popular tourist attraction. Therefore, the area surrounding the port is full of restaurants, bakeries, shops, and, in the winter time, markets. There were two Christmas markets on while I was there; one featuring local artists, and a typical one that sold everything from soap to churros! 

Marseille Cathedral

This is one of the biggest cathedrals in France, and is only about a 15 minute walk from the old port. It's an amazing piece of architecture, and is decorated inside and out with marble. It just is soo luxurious. 

Notre-Dame de la Garde

You can see Notre-Dame from all over the city, as it is built on the highest point of Marseille. Like the cathedral, Notre-Dame also has free entrance -- but it is further out of the city. However, once you finally get to the top, you'll find the most amazing views!

Places to Eat

Bar de la Marine

You may know this bar if you have seen Love Actually (and if you haven't, it's already December 5, WHAT are you doing with your time??). This is the restaurant where Jamie confesses his love to Aurelia. Awww. To be honest, this was sorta the reason I wanted to visit Marseille so badly, lol. To me, it was a must-visit.

Rue des Trois Rois

This street is full of food from around the world. You'll find Ukrainian, Greek, Pakistani, Italian, Japanese... oh, and French. We had the most amazing palak paneer here, it was the bomb . com. The buildings were also decorated with lots of street art (just like most of the city!) and there were paintings on the ground too


- Iona

indre-et-loire & maine-et-loire

Hi everyone,

So I am in Europe. France, to be exact. My sister and I are leaving for our backpacking trip on the 28th. So, until then, I am with my Mum, Dad and younger siblings, and we have been exploring a few places in the south of France.

GIZEUX

Our first stop with Gizeux, a small village 3 hours South-East of Paris. The village was very small and had some post-apocolypse vibes (as in, there was no one around, ever). It was really different from where we had just came from. I only have a couple pictures because I used this time to truly relax.

TOURS

We visited Tours from our little place in Gizeux. It was about 2 hours driving and once we got there we were all starving so spent probably another 2 hours walking around to find something. Tours was a nice little city, but, at this point, all the French cities look the same to me. We ended up getting some bomb Turkish food, though. I'll give them that.

SAUMUR

The third place we visited in the region was Saumur. Saumur was very medieval looking. There, we visited the Château, which looks across the whole town. The Château was torture, especially since it was about 31 degrees on the day we visited -- but the view was well worth it. The weather must've been perfect weather to go on a hot air balloon, though, because the sky was littered with them! Also, I didn't know until I visited, but this is actually the birth place of Coco Chanel. So that's cool.

le sud de la france

Hi again everyone!

I hope January is treating you all well. Here in Canada, it's still snowing. We had a cold winter, I think it was the snowiest in twenty years or something.

Anyways, this post isn't about the snow but it's about that time I went to the South of France. Yeah, nbd. Actually it was a big deal, it's the south of France, god dammit.

We went to a town/commune called St-Cyprien, which is in the Dordogne department. This is the area my parents want to move so we were sorta going to see what life is like there. My parents ended up not loving St-Cyprien as much as they thought they would. In their words, "there's too many English people."

The picture above is where we stayed. The south of France is actually exactly how you'd picture it. Lots of green, every house has the blue wooden shutters, and there's not a cloud in the sky. At least, that's how it was the whole time we were there in August. 

There was a market every Wednesday. Maybe a strange day, but it's France.

So, we would make it down to the market and buy random baked good and olives and eat them that day. I think my parents really liked that -- you know, the idea of buying things and eating it that day. You can do that here in Canada, sure, but it isn't the same as walking to the local boulangerie and buying a couple baguettes that were made just a few hours before.

The weather in France was amazing when we were there. It was high thirties everyday.

The heat resulted in my brothers and sister getting the most perfect, bronze tan. Me and my sister, Orla, on the other hand, came back as pale as we were when we left.

Milo, Coco and Enzo had a great time. They escaped the arguments over driving, directions, where to eat, etc. All they knew was the pool in the garden. Oh, and Orangina, which they tried for the first time in Paris and drank daily for the rest of the holiday.

paris & the louvre

Happy 2017, everyone!

Long time no typey-type.

I went to France this summer and thought I would share some pictures from that, because I don't really have anywhere else to put them! But like actually... These are nice pictures and all, but why do I always take so many pictures when I'm on holiday? I don't know. It's not like I'll come back and share holiday pics with my family because they were literally there. Oh well. I will share them with everyone reading this instead.

Okay, so we arrived on the 18th of August. Such a long flight. It was a direct flight with a 2-year old. I got the lone 7th chair which was a couple rows away from my family -- but a crying baby can still be heard everywhere on the plane.

So although everyone looks happy, please know that we all wanted to kill each other!!

After taking the metro from the airport to the Arc de Triomphe, we walked around looking for free wifi to find the address of our apartment. There's actually a lot of free wifi in Paris, just look for McDonald's (or anywhere that sells food -- or anything tbh) and you're good.

So we found the address and walked to our apartment, which was somewhere in the 16th arrondissement. It took us about 20 minutes to walk, but without bags/tired children, it would take you only about 12 minutes.

Our place was very central. I guess everything is central in Paris, because the metro goes everywhere. Well, as a tourist I think it goes everywhere, I'm not sure how the Parisians feel about it.

These are pictures from our walk and also afterwards when we decided to go out for lunch. Well. When I say lunch I mean a very late dinner. We got to our apartment and all showered and fell asleep for about four hours.

People are always out in Paris. It isn't as intense as Italy (where dinner starts at around 8 p.m.) but people are always eating or just sitting in cafes and stuff.

Eating is a bigger event. It isn't just going in, getting full, then leaving. People take their time with pretty much everything. It's a very calm way of living. No wonder my parents want to move there, haha!

We went to the Louvre on the second (or third?) day.

Turns out I only have about four pictures from the Louvre. I thought I remembered taking so many pictures, but I must have been mixing up the Louvre with the Palace of Versailles... wow, that sentence made me sound so privileged.

Here are the last pictures of my time in Paris. We only spent about four days there, because we then headed down to the south of France for the next three weeks!

Enjoy I will share the other pictures too! Now those ones are nice. When you leave the city, the world becomes so much more colourful. Paris is very brown.

Rue de Rivoli, Paris