Christmas in Paris – take two.

2018 was my second winter Christmas; both times in Paris.   The first one was a disaster. Romain and I had only been together for 6 months and we decided to go to France together to celebrate Christmas with his family. Seemed like a romantic idea, and I was excited to experience my first winter …

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Our new home..

A very kind stranger motivated me to get back into my blog. She wrote a message on my last blog telling me how much she enjoyed it and how she was looking forward to my next post. This small message inspired me as I had been wanting to write more but had been struggling to …

It’s been a while..

It’s proving very difficult to make the time to write blogs now which can be frustrating.  Despite having less time to write I’m really enjoying being busy - I feel like I have purpose again. And more than that I would say I’m finally feeling happy in France. It used to be all ups and …

What should I do?

This month I’ve been living in Nanterre. Romain’s cousin has gone on holiday for all of August and we’re looking after her home. For those of you who don’t know Paris and its surrounds, this image should give you all you need to know about my current living situation.   I have been feeling really …

My deep shame..

It was week 3 of my super intensive CELTA course and I needed to miss a day to head back to Paris. I arrived in Paris by train on the Monday night and on Tuesday morning, armed with all my paperwork, I headed to OFII. Romain had offered to meet me there on his lunchbreak …

OFII (Office of French Immigration and Integration)

In my last job we were taught that it is valuable for a company to have a 'purpose'. Each employee should know the “reason why we get out of bed in the morning”.  A purpose should inspire and engage; it should help direct employees in understanding how to manage any situation by reflecting on the …

Strasbourg Part 2

The second issue I’ve had since moving to France was not having structure in my days. I always thought I could thrive off having so much free time, I could spend time writing, "finding myself" (Dawson's creek style) reading and exploring the city. But over time these things get old and you just want to …

Strasbourg – Part 1

So 5 weeks have flown by and I’m back in Paris. As expected, my life was so incredibly busy that I fell off the radar for a month. I hardly had time to talk to family and friends back home, let alone write my blog. But now I’m home and it’s time to start writing …

The Parisian Oasis

Buttes Chaumont is not found amongst the key attractions in tourist brochures of Paris, but perhaps it should be, because it both beautiful and unexpected. Unexpected because, although completely man-made, it feels like small piece of the natural world that has survived as the city grew around it. And it's beauty is apparent in both …

The next step

Life has just suddenly got very busy and it’s been hard to carve out some time to write. But I wanted to write something today to make sure people knew that I’m still alive and because life is about to get even busier!! Currently, I’m spending every morning in French class and every afternoon studying …