pastis and the French Riviera

Happy Saturday! YOU MADE IT TO THE WEEKEND!! How are you doing? Are you taking time to check-in with yourself and give yourself the care, love, and attention you need? If not, it’s perfectly okay to set aside time for yourself to do whatever you want/need to do during ‘me time.’ Maybe your thing is yoga, meditation, running, paddle boarding, reading, tending to a pallet garden you built, sewing some pillowcases for your home decor, making a dress to match your homemade mask, paddle boarding, refurbishing furniture, tooling around with some new tools, or even playing animal crossing with family and friends, but whatever you want to do during your assigned ‘me time,’ make sure you’re doing it and giving yourself a break.

If you didn’t get a chance to read yesterday’s post - “one year ago today” - you can click here to read about my reflection on the process of researching, writing, and handing in my Masters Degree dissertation! Otherwise, if you’re all caught up, buckle up and let’s continue this journey together! In the spirit of continuing the trend of where I was this time last year, let’s head to France! Oui Oui!

While I was living in Dublin and finishing up my dissertation, I received a message from my now-boyfriend. He was curious if I wanted to be his plus-one at a wedding in the South of France. I found out the necessary details and said yes (though I was super duper nervous if I’m being totally honest), and I told him that I was planning on doing a trip to Salzburg after the wedding as I’d always wanted to do the Sound of Music bus tour (get PUMPED for that upcoming post)! He said he’d come with me to Salzburg and then we could go to Munich and stay with one of his old friends. What started out as a wedding in France quickly turned into a mini Eurotrip (and now, a year later, we’re in love and live together and have dance parties in the living room and yell at hockey on the TV, so life is pretty twisty-turny crazy, and I love it).

When I arrived at the airport in Marseille, my boyfriend was there to pick me up with French baguettes in hand. Talk about ideal, y'all. His sister (who had given me lots of advice regarding Trinity and who helped fill in the details of wedding attire for me), her husband, my boyfriend, and I then drove to Marseille and took a boat trip out to one of the islands off the coast where we enjoyed some time at the beach, ate dinner, watched the sunset, and I tried Pastis for the first time. It did not go well. I am happy to report, however, that although it has taken me close to a year, I have found a version of Pastis that I enjoy, so great success (Borat voice)! We took the boat back to the city and were driven to Aix en Provence where my boyfriend and I found our way to the AirBnB we’d call home for a couple nights. It was a jam-packed day for me of traveling, especially since there were flight cancellations and some rerouting involved, but it was a good day when all was said and done.

One of my favorite books is Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald, which takes place over a summer on the French Riviera. I’d always had an image in my mind whenever I’ve reread it of what the scenery looked like, but it was so much better in reality than what my mind conjured up. Have you ever visited a location from one of your favorite books, especially one in such a romantic setting? Let me know! Subscribe in the e-mail submission box below and reach out, follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and reach out to me on the “contact” page. I’m so happy you're here and that I’ve been receiving a lot of really incredible stories, questions, and feedback from a community all over the globe! Other people’s stories that I’ve gotten to read via e-mail, text, tweet, DM, etc. recently bring me such smiles, and I am so grateful for all of it! I hope I get to hear all about whatever stories you’ve been thinking about as we’ve been on this virtual journey together! Also, I've said it before and I'll say it again, if you have any restaurants/eateries/pubs/coffee shops/ice cream joints/theatres/lookout spots you would recommend in other countries or even in your current home town or city, I'm absolutely 100% all ears!! I couldn’t do this without you! So THANK YOU! From the bottom of my heart, truly, thank you.

Sincerely,

Johny

P.S. - If you want to catch up from the beginning on this series of travel adventures, here's a cheat sheet to the posts (in order in which they were published):