Success, to me, is filling your life with what brings you joy. It’s being genuinely, deeply happy right where you are — your physical home, your day-to-day routine, your relationships with others, your relationship with yourself. It looks different for everyone. And it can't be ticked off a list, because it's a lifelong endeavour. It's THE lifelong endeavour. Finding joy, and bringing it to others. What else matters, really?
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?
I know, I know, I've been neglecting my blog again recently. I had such good intentions when I took up my figurative pen again this summer, but I can assure you, I have my best excuse yet for this most recent hiatus - I've been immersing myself in another writing project, one that I'm rather... 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 →
Search Google for anything remotely related to repatriating in France and you will find a wealth of accounts whining about testifying to the nightmarish near-impossibility of navigating french administration/bureaucracy. In my mission to prepare myself as fully as possible for my new life, I read many (oh, so many) of these myself before I moved... Continue Reading →
I’m starting to wonder if there’s something wrong with me. We’re 26 days into the official confinement in France, it’s been 27 days since I had a conversation with another human face-to-face, and 29 days have passed since I saw anyone I actually know. Not that I’m counting or anything. But if I was, I... Continue Reading →
I know you’re not supposed to wish your life away (a favourite admonishment of my mother) and you’ve got to live in the moment, etc. etc. But right now, the moment is cold, wet, windy and grey, and franchement, I’d much rather think ahead a little. So I thought I’d put my wistful spring-and-summer daydreams... Continue Reading →
Forget the weather, the only acceptable topic of small-talk in Paris for about a fortnight now has been les grèves – aka the strikes. You don’t have to be living in France to have heard about them; it was via my family in England I first found out there’d been any kind of violence from... Continue Reading →
I made it! As of two-and-a-bit weeks ago, I have now been resident in France for a full year. I would have written about it on the day, but I actually celebrated my ‘anniversary’ by being in another continent – where I was a) making the most of every precious minute with friends and family... Continue Reading →
Adventures of an Anglaise 