USA

It was a dreamy year in France.
I spent 9 months in public school with the little frenchies teaching them how to speak English.
I explored Germany, Austria, Turkey, Greece & England.
I drank good wine.
I made my first official French galfriends.
I ate good cheese.
I read a bunch of really great books.
I perfected my French.
I became a baguette snob.


It makes me smile to think about it all.


But, oh my word.
After 10 hours in a plane yesterday, 
I saw my parents at the airport.
I hugged Bojangles.
I drank a big cup of legitimate american coffee.
I slept like a baby in the room I grew up in.
& I feel like I am right where I want to be.




Everyone, this is adieu.
Thank you for tuning in.
I hope that my writing has made you smile & perhaps even inspired you to go where your heart desires.  


I did, and I am so glad.

Oh

dear.


I just woke up and my room is in absolute disarray.  I started packing yesterday.  You'd think it would be no problem as I came here with just two suitcases 10 months ago.

but it is.

how does a human accumulate so many things?

I know.

I had to have posters & candles & tons of post cards to decorate my room and make it cozy.

I bought a parka cause I was freezing in Berlin in December.

I got gifts for some people.

I had to buy plates & all that sort of stuff.

Plus, of course I got scarves in Istanbul, and leather sandals in Greece, etc., etc.

Today is just going to be getting all my stuff together and then I am heading to my French friend Mél's for my last night, half because I have to leave my place today at noon & half because I made her mixed cds and we are going to cry probably.


I am tired but it is easy to get out of bed because my comforter is already packed away with stuff that I am giving away and I am freezing.

Also, France is making it easy to leave.
It has rained the last 4 days, there is no hot water in my building, and my faucet is leaky.

Lyon & Annecy

I decided a while back that the week after I was done teaching, I would go someplace in France kind of far away that I hadn't been before.  I originally wanted to go to the Mediterranean but I chose the alps instead.

Everybody, forget Paris. Go to the Alps.

Just kidding, don't forget Paris but seriously consider the Alps as well.

Lyon, the second biggest city in France is the most high energy & livable city that I have ever been to.

There are two rivers, three really distinct downtown areas, and more markets than you could ever dream of.

I spent all four days that I was there biking from place to place with their awesome, really cheap bike rental system.  Plus, the bikes are red and they are smooth on the street.

There is a great musée des beaux arts, a clean metro, a gorgeous basilica, beautiful people,

this fabulous monument

and good restaurants where you can eat stuff like this...

Salade Lyonnaise

 Poached egg, bacon, huge croutons & vinaigrette

and you can be like me and add a glass of beaujolais

Tarte aux pralines roses 

A speciality in Lyon.  It was good.  The super chic lady next to me recommended it.

La Mère Jean, 5 Rue Des Marronniers.

Good place.

I also took a great walking tour with a lady named Annelise.  maybe 70 years old.  speaks five languages.  She showed us around the renaissance quarters of the city.  We explored the traboules, which are alleyways to maze through buildings to avoid the streets, which they used to help foot traffic starting in the 1500s. 

 Some of these traboules have pretty courtyards like this one.

After Lyon, I took a train to Annecy to spend three days.

Woah woah woah woah.

This is France's best kept secret apparently because the only way I know about it is from a cute family that comes to my mom's tearoom all the time that has a daughter named after the town.

If someone is named after a place, their parents must of had a really good time there, so I definitely wanted to check it out.

In fact, Annecy was in the running up until a week ago for the 2018 winter olympics but lost to a city in Korea.

Anyways, what a great spot. You have a gorgeous & clean lake, mountains, canals, a romantic old quarter, & a sweet hostel with a huge garden to hang out.

There is a building shaped like a boat in the middle of one of the canals in the old city that used to be a prison for many centuries.  They even used it during world war II for prisoners.

I swam a good amount in the lake.

I took another walking tour (I' m a fan) in Annecy with a guy named Pierre.  So french it hurt in his tunic with his loose curls and pointed leather shoes. 

Someone actually called me out in the hostel on how I reference tour guides a lot.  But you know what?  I'm not ashamed.  I think it's cool to know a lot of things.  

Pierre.

& the oldest trompe l'oeil in France.

It was a good time.  Definitely.

Like I said awesome hostel, look at this garden.