Coming live from Ireland!

Hi, everyone!

I'm alive! I'm in Ireland! I'm ready to have a great year! And I'm going to tell you all about it! Soon! But first! This picture!

There will be a real update soon, I promise.  I just had to ensure that you all saw this picture first.

Much love from Ireland,

Angie

Easter 2014

Easter is just one cool holiday.  We celebrate Jesus rising up from the grave, there's awesome music at mass, we eat ridiculous amounts of food, and we hang out with family.  What's not to love about that?  Nothing, I tell you, nothing...except for maybe double negatives.

As I was in Saumur visiting my friend Allison for Easter weekend, I wasn't able to go to my "regular" church, although nothing has been regular about my weekend schedule this year, so that was no big deal.  We found a church which had a nice mass. I missed "Jesus Christ is Risen Today", but whatcha gonna do, kids?

And then our friend Rebecca, who is also an American teaching English in France for the year, had us over for a ridiculously delicious brunch.  Get your droolers ready.

Rebecca made this unreal quiche filled with zucchini, lardons (look it up if you don't know what it is..definitely worth your time), and comté (yummy, gooey cheese).  With it, she served fresh green beans (bought at the Saumur outdoor market) covered in garlic and almonds.  SO GOOD.

With it, we had a nice magnum (double bottle) of bubbly that we purchased on a tour and tasting at a wine cave the day before.  As champagne (but we can't call it that because it is technically from Champage...whatever..) is a specialty of Saumur, it was both highly appropriate and highly delicious.  And because we're goofs, we had a couple photo shoots with the bottle.

Who needs men when you have a bottle of bubbly?

France has really changed me.

Note: bottle is empty.

And if that wasn't already delicious enough, Rebecca made crêpes from scratch with a homemade salted caramel sauce that tasted almost too good for human consumption...almost.  We were all just eating the sauce out of the pan afterwards.  It was too good to resist.

Topped with strawberries and happiness.

I know I've said this a few times, but I'm always hesitant around holidays here.  Without family, it can be a little hard to not be bummed out on missing all the fun.  However, this weekend was a total success, and I can say with all my heart that I had a wonderful Easter weekend.  Thanks to all my friends for keeping it real and delicious with me.

Lovesies,

Angie

PS - Rebecca cooked this whole meal in her little French apartment kitchen. Mad props, girl.

Castle Time!

So this weekend we went to the ridiculously gorgeous castle of Chambord.

Gorg, right?!

Unreal.  But guess what! They built that thing without thinking about a kitchen, so it was a total pain in the butt to eat anything there.  Its whole existence should be brought into question.  Why have a building you can't eat in?

Regardless, it was a great Saturday spent with wonderful friends, new and old.

Me & My Buddy, Allison

I was goofy.  Shocker.

My Saturday crew!

Nice quick trip! I'll be missing these Loire Valley treasures when I leave France on Sunday!

Lovesies,

Angie

A Weekend in Rennes

Yo, gangstas! Wasssuppp?!?!

Enough of that, I know.

Anyway, last weekend I went to Rennes, the capital of Bretagne (or Brittany) with my friend Allison!

She's beautiful.

We were only in Rennes for about 26 hours, but man, did I have a good time! While we were there, we wandered the town, acting like the huge tourists we are...

We rented an apartment through airbnb, and took waaaay too many pictures with the cat that lives there.

Friendly guy.

Tried our hand at the infamous Rennes night scene, which was everything we had hoped it to be and more.  Showing Frenchies how to dance in an old, underground jail? Check.

And then I woke my butt up the next morning, realized I would be about 15 minutes late for the mass I had planned on going to, stopped at this church instead, met a really nice French woman who's been teaching English for years and has actually worked with many English assistants, met her American friends who are teaching in Rennes during this year and the next, was asked to read the Prayers of the Faitful at mass, said I'd love to as long as they didn't mind my American accent, read the intentions (in my American accent), and had a nice talk about ways to live abroad with the American couple I met.  This was easily a highlight of the year for me.

So though we weren't there long, I will forever hold my memories of Rennes near to my heart. Wonderful trip with a great friend. 

Phew. I think I'm almost caught up on blog posts now.

Lovesies.

Angie

And to finish in Nice...

We spent a day doing nothing but strolling the market, eating 1.5 kilos of strawberries, and sitting on the beach.

This is the life.

Good times.

Angie

Gelato Break

There are many beautiful things to see in this world, and there's this:

Delicious gelato.

Bailey and I made a stop at Fenocchio (pronounced like "Pinocchio" with a strange "p" turns into "f" speech impediment) while we were in Nice, and can I just same yum?!

Here are the flavors we selected. See if you can guess which is which:

passion fruit, cassis (blackcurrant), salted caramel, Bailey's, cactus, and spicy chocolate

Worry not. They were all delicious.

Mmm.

Angie

Row, Row, Row Your Yacht

So this is Monaco:

What a gorgeous place, right? Because of their tax laws, it often attracts the rich and richer, which means that we had some fabulous boats to oogle at.  Ya, oogle.

Well-chosen name.

These will go nicely with our new wheels. Thank you.

We tried our hardest to meet a couple of handsome, young yacht owners who wanted to whisk us away, but alas, all I whisked was gelato into my stomach. No complaints!!

Much love!

Angie

Trying Our Luck at the Monte Carlo

Bonjour a tous,

Guess what! We get to keep living the fun of my trip with Bailey through pictures and happiness!! WOOOO!!!

So, while we were in Nice, the same day that we stopped in Èze Village, we went to the sovereign city-state of Monaco. (No, totally did not have to look that up.)

Our first stop off the bus was the beautiful Monte Carlo!

It's the one on the left.

Unfortunately, you can't take pictures inside, or else I'd show you what the lavish interior looked like.  We did, however, try our hand at some slot machines. I lost my 10 euro reeeeeally quickly. We don't need to talk about it.

Probably my favorite part of the Monte Carlo was all of the ridiculously beautiful cars parked out front.  Bailey convinced me to take a separate trip back up to the casino because we didn't take any pictures with the cars the first time.  I am so glad she did because if she hadn't we wouldn't have these beautiful snapshots:

My new ride.

Yes please.

Just stopping by the casino for a minute.

Girl's Day Out!

This was a huge reminder that sometimes you just have to be a tourist.  I'm pretty sure that every local was cracking up at us, but it was totally worth it!

Much love to all of you!
Angie

Èze On Down the Road

We knew before we ever got to Nice that we wanted to do a day in Monaco because it is just too cool to pass up.  However, what we didn't know is how many cool cities are along the way.  Like you've read, we stopped in Villefranche one day, and decided to stop in the village of Èze (pronounced like fez, minus the 'f') the following day.  It was a great little stop that can be done in about two hours or less.  Boo ya!

The whole village is made of stone!

Apparently the golden goat is a thing...

Buddies in Èze!

After exploring the village of Èze, we went to this perfume factory where we took a tour of the building, and were dumped into the gift shop.  Let's just say there was some damage done.

The craziest thing about this factory is that you could smell it all the way from where we were standing taking the picture below, if not before that!

Our spoils!

It was a great, girly stop on our way to Monaco!!

Loves.

Angie

Villefranche: Don't Take the Bus

During our trip to Nantes, we stayed at a really great hostel that I highly recommend to anyone visiting the city!  We arrived at late to the hostel, and after a quick check in crashed in comfy bunks.  The next morning, while we were eating breakfast, one of the staff members gave us a 30-minute run-down on all the cool things we could do in Nice, and in all the surrounding cities.  Awesome!  So feeling ready to conquer the world, we invited my roommate and her boyfriend (who also booked a trip to Nice without knowing I was going!) to take a little trip to a city called Villefranche that sits on the Mediterranean and has a great peninsula you can hike out.  Sounds perfect, right?

The picturesque little city of Villefranche.

I mean, how gorgeous is that?!

Want to know how I have such great pictures of this little town?  Well, let me tell you.  THE BUS.  I am officially stating how much I dislike buses as a form of public transportation.  They are the trickiest little guys; a game of guess-how-well-you-know-this-town-you've-never-been-to.  Trams? Wonderful, clean, structured.  Trains?  Big trams.  My feet?  It's my own fault if I get lost.  But buses, ohhh buses.  I swear they were created just to confuse the heck out of me.

But I digress... the four of us got off at the completely wrong stop, tried to find another bus, didn't wave it down, watched it drive away feeling like like fools, and then walked the coast in search of food and drink.

The bus ain't comin, kids.

Moral of the story: we eventually found a restaurant that served sub-par tapas and over-priced sangria, but sat on the Mediterranean, so I guess I can forgive them.

Let's be real, I loved every minute of the day.  It's days like that one that make me love traveling.  You never know what's going to happen, I usually get lost, and then find something that's way cooler than I could have planned for myself, so no complaints from me.

Love from France!

Angie

Oh, and PS, we took the train home.

Central Park of Nice

Look to your left, there's the city of Nice. Look to your right, and there's the beach.  And straight ahead, there's the Château de Nice.  This is a great addition to the city that's just been finished in the last few months.

Take me back!

Loves.
Angie

Views of Nice

When you go to Nice, make sure you climb up the Château de Nice.  Because #France, there is no longer a castle there, but there are some fabulous views of the city and its harbor.

What a beautiful city.

Loves.
Angie

Nice Has a Gorgeous Open-Air Market

And I'm here to bring you pictures!
Disclaimer: I stole quite a few of these from Bailey.

Hey!! I know them!

Le roi du marché

He's still hiding at the end there...

Talk about beautiful window shopping...

Loves.
Angie

Our Tiny Parisian Apartment

Bailey and I found an apartment through airbnb that was in the heart of Paris. What luck! It was about a 15-minute walk to Notre Dame, and around the corner from a couple really bustling streets.  Everything about it was perfect.... except for the size...and climbing up 6 flights of stairs....

Here's what I mean:

Tiny shower.  Notice that it's next to the door.

Ooh! There's the toilet!

Tiniest sink! 

Figuring out how to flush that guy was entertaining.

This one merits a real introduction.  Notice the size of that little box above the toaster over.  That, friends, is the water heater, and when you're out, you are out! That made for some interesting showers in our tiny and not-at-all-private shower.

Water heater.

Top: Bailey's bed. Bottom: Mine. Felt like we were back in college.

For size comparison.

We definitely felt like real Parisians in that little guy! Ahh, good times, good times. No one can tell us we didn't make memories there!

Lovesies,

Angie