Summer is unmistakably coming to a close. The days are still warm (and sometimes sunny), but you can feel it in the cooling evening air, see it in some indefinable quality of the morning light. I’m no longer leaving the windows of my little rooftop apartment thrown open until the last possible moment before going... Continue Reading →
You'll have to excuse the geeky Greek mythology reference in the title; strange though it may seem, Classics grads don't get to use their degrees too often in real life. If you're not into slightly obscure deities from ancient cultures (though I find it hard to imagine why anyone wouldn't be), Eos is the Greek... Continue Reading →
Solo travel is a special kind of time to yourself, when there’s no obligation or pressure to do anything specific or productive. How often, in the busy balancing act of grown-up life, do we get the opportunity to spend several (waking) hours in total repose, without any guilt or consequences?
Let’s face it, there’s been a lot more to complain about than there has been to celebrate in 2020. It really was one hell of a year, and I don’t mean that in the good way. For me, among other things, it’s included spending six months jobless, and three of those without seeing another human... Continue Reading →
I embarked on another food quest this week, deciding on a whim to dig out one of my (embarrassingly numerous) "to try" lists and settling on a little boulangerie I've been meaning to visit for at least two years now. The boulangerie in question is the Circus Bakery in the Latin Quarter, specialist purveyors of... Continue Reading →
Bonne année! A new year, a new decade – though the same strikes, if you’re a Paris-dweller. Appropriately (and for the first time), I brought in 2020 in the most fantastically FRENCH manner possible, between NYE and New Year’s Day – both of which I spent in French homes, speaking predominantly in French, and enjoying... Continue Reading →
As part of my 2019 quest to take advantage of being based in Paris by exploring other parts of France, I spent last weekend in Bordeaux. I have actually been before, so it wasn’t exactly expanding my French horizons the way the “quest” is supposed to be, but my last (and only other) visit was... Continue Reading →
A warning: This is going to be a long one. A promise: It’s worth it. I’ve got a bloody weird story to tell you, and I simply couldn’t do it justice without the word count. I don’t mind if you want to go pop the kettle on and come back in five. Get a drink.... Continue Reading →
Visitors are like buses: you don’t see anyone for months at a time, and then suddenly, everyone you’ve said “hi” to in the last fifteen years wants to turn up on the same weekend. As usual, I’m exaggerating somewhat – but I did have guests 3/4 weekends in April (and it was very nearly 4/4,... Continue Reading →
I did it. This weekend, I finally took the plunge and went busking in the Metro! Now, if you read my post about obtaining my Musiciens du Metro license in the first place, you might be wondering why this announcement is coming a full two months later. I can explain: between three trips abroad, a... Continue Reading →
