Life's too short!

I wasn't always a Francophile...to be honest I only started being one when I turned nineteen years of age. It began with my very first trip to Paris in the summer of 1994!
By then I had gained sufficient knowledge in the French language that I felt I could confidently do the "tourist" thing without any real help.

PARIS is so pretty, so captivating. One of my sisters visited in the not too distant past, when she came home she said to me "I know why you love France so much now". "Why? "I asked.
Her answer was" it's beautiful".

She couldn't be more accurate. There is nothing I would say that wasn't elegant or lovely about this romantic stylish capital.

I need to go back. I need to feel the magic again. We are in the middle of a pandemic which had wreaked havoc with many travel plans I had in mind. Bordeaux for a start.. I also want to see Normandy...
Plus Perpignan.

I was lucky enough to reside in Strasbourg for a full 12 months of my student life.
I did NOT want to leave.
My memories are full of happy experiences of my time there, although short they left such a wonderful feeling with me which have lasted til this day.
If you have never visited France my advice is go. Before you miss the chance. Life's just too short x

Rennes was SO cool!!

Sincere apologies for my long absence...I had promised to provide updates on my trip to Rennes - I am so sorry it has taken me this long. I visited Rennes in July 2015. I had not long recovered from cancer and my husband was kind and understanding enough to realise this was what I needed to experience once more what I truly love - GOING TO FRANCE!

I visited Rennes over several days....my first thought on descending the plane was that ''I wish I had packed welly boots'' as it had been raining before the plane landed! I had no other footwear other than sandals for the trip - due to previous trips to France - I predicted that the weather would be nice.

My visit was a really interesting one. I stayed in a hotel in the Old Town part of Rennes. a perfectly centrally located base for doing all my exploring....

I took many photos during my stay - here are some of them:

A park in Rennes

Lovely Mont St Michel (Abbey on the Water), Brittany

Mont St Michel in the distance

Getting closer to Mont St Michel

Hotel de Ville, Rennes

View of Mont St Michel/North west coast of France from the air

An old castle in Nantes - I took a train there

My penpal Sophie, her sons and good friend - met them in Nantes

View of Rennes street from my hotel

A park in Rennes

Rennes

La France - je reviens!!!

A visit to my beloved France is long overdue. I am happy to announce I am going to visit Rennes this summer 2015. I first contemplated going to Bordeaux for a week to do a refresher intensive summer course. However after much um-ing and ahh-ing I have decided to spend 5 days in Rennes to get my head showered at least. Don't get me wrong, I love my family and I love being a mum. But, being in France is the only way I can feel , whole , and complete again! Does that sound familiar? It's hard to explain, but the anticipation of going to somewhere fantastic like this fills me with excitement.
I left a part of me in Strasbourg all those years ago...the longing never ceased for me...I am happy . Flights are booked , and I have my eye on an apart-hotel..near the old town.

Updates to follow.

Anyone for crafts?

I rediscovered the hobby of making ATC's recently.  Here is what I made earlier:

French themed ATC's

Paris, I miss you....

C'etait la reve la plus importante a moi!  Quoi?   Un sejour a Paris!

From the 14th to 17th March my partner and I went to Paris for a little break..
We booked a nice, cosy little hotel in central Paris, just south of the Montmartre region.
When we got there, the airport bus left us off at Gare du Nord.  From there we managed to flag down a taxi to take us to our hotel.  The taxi driver gave me my first 'your French is excellent' compliment!!  I was so happy but not quite convinced.

Here is what we did:

Night 1 (not long after arrival):

• Dined in a typical little Parisian restaurant, off the Rue Lafayette. 
• We headed back to the hotel,as we'd been travelling all day, early night and recharge batteries for the following day.

Our room

Day 2

• We headed straight for the Eiffel Tower - leaving the hotel at 8.30 am. I was so excited!!  The weather was nice.   We walked along the Champ de Mars - I didn't recall the Tower being so small before!  But there were renovations being carried out...
• We visited the Champs-Elysees, by foot, starting at the Arc de Triomphe and walked all the way down!   We reached the Place de la Concorde (Egyptian obelisk) and took a nice stroll towards the Louvre Museum....

We passed by a cheese shop on the way.

Giant sweet sculpture on the Champs-Elysees

Street sign

View from bottom of the Champs-Elysees

Obelisk at Place de la Concorde

 

Pyramid at the Louvre museum

 

Day 3

• We decided to head up to the Sacre-Coeur and walked up the steps to get to the fountain bit, however ~ there was only one local souvenir shop open at 9.15 am in the morning. There was a group of about 20 tourists that seemed to have crammed into that one tiny shop, needless to say I couldn't buy anything.    
• We took a walk towards the Moulin Rouge area, which my partner had wanted to go - to have his photo taken of the famous windmill!!

• Later on that day, we managed to come across an antiques market, which sold old retro comics, music, newspapers etc!   

• We went to the Cemetery at metro stop Pere Lachaise, sort of east of the city. I knew that Jim Morrison's grave was there, as well as that of Chopin (composer) and  writer Oscar Wilde.  This was interesting to see! The cemetery was massive - with an amazing 70,000 graves in it.

• A visit to 'Chinatown''  except it wasn't just Chinese folk there. (I am Chinese by ethnic origin). There were loads of Vietnamese, Thai and Indonesian businesses there too!  We also came across by accident, an ''Indian town'' in which there were about three whole streets dedicated to Indian restaurants, shops selling Bollywood stuff and Indian clothing! A little odd for us!

Electric car!

The Sacre Coeur

View from the Sacre Coeur

Moulin Rouge

La Patisserie!

French Patisserie (bakery)

Oscar Wilde's grave

 

Paris, here I come!

It was long overdue. Yes. 
Paris!!   My affair with France hasn't finished yet....it took quite some persuading and tears for me to 'convince' my partner we just have to go there!

So, we went and bought a guidebook today, booked the trip etc. etc - to say I am excited is an understatement!!

More updates to follow...

More French retail therapy...

I cannot resist stationery especially if it is French stationery!

France themed letter writing set, notebook & file holder