Saucisson and delicious olives

Happy Tuesday! 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 - “French weddings” - you can click here to read about the most insanely wonderful wedding I’ve ever attended - in, you guessed it, the South of France! Otherwise, if you’re all caught up, buckle up and let’s continue this journey together! We're still in France, baby!

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, the chateau wedding venue was rented out for the whole weekend. On Sunday after the wedding, close family and friends of the bride and groom returned to the chateau for the day in order to enjoy a day together in the sunshine and the warmth of each other’s company. I don’t have many pictures from that day since it was very much just everyone spending time together, but it did include lounging by a pool in the back yard area, swimming, and enjoying many delicious cheeses and drinks, as well as a food truck that showed up for the day. It was a very relaxed, low-key day and the perfect way to spend the morning and afternoon after such a late night wedding (4 AM, remember?). At one point, I even took a mini nap by the pool under cabana shade (during which my boyfriend scared me awake by dripping water on me as he tried to sneak his sunglasses off me mid-slumber). The night ended with us watching French Spongebob in our pajamas, which was the icing on the cake of a wonderful weekend.

One thing I totally forgot to write about the other day was a visit my (now) boyfriend and I made to the open air market in Aix-en-Provence! Before our hike to the French Alps waterfall and swimming hole a couple posts ago, I mentioned that we’d woken up that morning in a leisurely manner complete with coffee and French music. What I failed to mention because I was so excited to write about the hike, the swimming hole, and the tomato cake was that after we woke up in our amazing AirBnB that overlooked Aix-en-Provence, we actually spent a lot of time that morning walking around the Market. We looked at many clothing vendors that had some of the cutest yellow dresses I’ve ever seen, we sampled many delicious French cheeses, breads, and olive oils, and we stopped to buy some of the most delicious olives I’ve ever had (pictured above - 2nd photo of this poast; we purchased the garlic marinated ones far left that we ended up sharing later with the family... and YES, they rivaled these) and some proper Saucisson (the picture I took of the sausages at the top of this page is currently hanging above our dining room table - that’s how much we love Saucisson and that French market in Aix-en-Provence).

Do you have a farmers market you love? It doesn’t have to be in France! I also love the farm market in my hometown in Southern New Jersey, as well! 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):