South of France - Monaco

I was going to do Villefranche and Monaco in the same post but it started to get really picture heavy. I'm really bad at wheedling down the pictures! I want to show you all everything. I suppose there are worse things. Anyway, back to the trip. We hopped on the train and arrived in Monaco. You really have to walk quite a ways from the train station to get anywhere worth seeing. Unfortunately, Monaco was gearing up for the Grand Prix so a lot of things were blocked off and it was a bit sad.

You can see the stands set up for the race blocking the view of the casino behind me.

A lot of guys were oogling this car... They made sure to park all the nicest cars right out front and this one was in front of all of them. Must be good!

Then we headed to this really nice restaurant on the beach for a 30th birthday dinner to be remembered!

After the south of France, we were off to Italy so stay tuned!

South of France - Villefranche Sur Mer

The next day we were in the south of France was my 30th birthday! We were only going to head to Monaco that day but I had listened to a Rick Steves podcast (this is a free app, so awesome) that had talked about Villefranche Sur Mer. It was described as a little fishing village with lots of charm so I knew we had to stop! Since it was on the way to Monaco, we woke up early and stopped there first. I am SO glad we did. This is the kind of place we were looking for. It had tons of charm and seemed like a place where real people live unlike other towns such as Cannes or Monaco. If you ever find yourself in the south of France, be sure to stop in Villefranche!

  

  

  

  



   

I'll be back with Monaco soon!

South of France - Nice

We hopped on another regional train and took another long ride down to Nice. I had already been to the South of France before and wasn't super keen to go back. I'm not really a ritzy beach kind of gal. However, we ended up having a nice time! The first day we were there, we stumbled upon a local market. So many gorgeous and good smelling foods. There were tons of flowers, vegetables, fruits and even a whole booth of just flavored sugars. If I was not carrying a backpack around for another 2 weeks after this, I would have definitely picked up some things. I did buy some herbs de Provence for my parents. I know the spices can be found anywhere (marjoram, thyme, savory, basil, rosemary,sage, and fennel) but it was in a cute little bag so I couldn't resist. However, some of my clothes smelled like herbs for the rest of the trip :)

  

  

   

  

Stayed tuned for the other part of Southern France soon! 

Lyon

After Paris, we took a very long train ride to Lyon. Apparently, we were trying to travel on a national holiday so all of the fast trains were booked. We had to take the regional trains down there so a 2-3 hour ride turned into about 6 or 7. We had planned on spending the whole day in Lyon but didn't end up getting there until 8:00 at night.  We stayed with a lovely girl through couchsurfing and it was a great experience! She was originally from Tibet so she made us a traditional Tibetan meal which was sort of like pot stickers. Really tasty! Then she showed us around the old part of Lyon. It is a gorgeous city and I would love to go back and spend more time there. It is apparently a huge foodie city so next time I would love to grab dinner there :) I only have iPhone photos since I didn't want to bring my big camera around. Sorry they are a bit blurry!

 

Take Time Tuesday

It's been scientifically proven* that Tuesday is the worst day of the week. Monday is close enough to Sunday that you can survive on the wonderful memories from the weekend and get through the day. Tuesday has no weekend in sight and all shine of the weekend before is completely worn off. I decided last week that I'm going to take this stupid day and turn it into something positive. Are you with me so far?! Let's do this.

My plan (and yours too if you want) is to turn Stupid/Lame/Dreaded Tuesday into Take Time Tuesday. First of all, who doesn't love alliteration? I digress. Let's take some time each Tuesday to do something for ourselves or others. Living alone, you would think I have lots of time for myself. That I do but I usually waste it on looking at the internet/watching TV and not getting things done. This can really be anything you want it to be. It also doesn't have to take the whole day or evening. Take time out to do something you enjoy, make time for something you've been putting off... anything!

For the first week, I'm just going to share a list of things that I want to make more time for and you can join in by linking up below! It doesn't even have to be how you can accomplish it, just start brainstorming!

- Instead of watching TV, I want to spend that time reading instead.
- Take a bath!
- Go through my closet and get rid of stuff
- Catch up with friends but do it one on one. Maybe go out to dinner or grab a drink?
- Spend quality time with Ace. Take him for a hike or make him some homemade treats?
-  Make my place feel more like a home. Clean, organize, work on a DIY project...
- Work on my mending pile
- Skype with my sister and niece
- Cook a nice meal for myself or maybe have a couple friends over.
- Scan old photos
- Take better care of my skin. Make a homemade mask or get a facial.


As you can see, they can be any number of things. Big or small. It doesn't have to be a huge goal either and that's the beauty of it. Just something you want to spend a little more time on each week. I would love to have you share your list and join me!

Paris Part Deux

Back to my trip. I can' believe how long it is taking me to get all of these posts up. Sorry about that! Just thinking of editing like 1000 more photos makes me want to cry. Maybe I will get back to posting regular things and just sprinkle trip pictures in between. What say you?

One of the days, we started off by taking the Metro over to Sacre Cour. I was surprised by how much my friend didn't like the area. Yes, there are pushy people trying to sell you stuff and it isn't the greatest part of town but just ignore them and keep walking. No need to be scared or miss out! It was pretty hazy that morning so the view from up there wasn't that great. However, I saw Amelie for the first time a month or so before this so it made this part of the trip more fun!

Since we were in the area, we also stopped by Moulin Rouge. I wasn't a huge fan of walking there the last time I was in Paris but it didn't seem as grimey as I remembered. My friend wanted to GTFO though so we just took a photo and hopped back on the Metro. 

We took the train over to the Trocadero to check out the Eiffel Tower. We waited in a (really really) slow moving line to get up to the top but man are those views worth it! How Parisians ever thought the Eiffel Tower was an eye sore is beyond me! Once we were at the top, we enjoyed some gelato from the food court on the first level. My friend recommended it to me and I was skeptical about how good it could really be but it was delicious!

  

After the trip to the top, we took some time just to chill in the grass on the other side of the tower. It was nice to just take a breather and sit in the sun for a bit. We had the privilege (not really) of sitting by a wedding party. They looked like a slightly better looking Jersey shore cast... 

   

We decided to hop on the Metro again and head over to the Champs Elysees. We got there around 7:30 so most of the shops were closed which was a bummer. The sunset behind the Arc de Triomphe more than made up it. As you can see from the photos below.

I think this was the same day, but I could be wrong. haha One of the nights we ate a really delicious dinner at a restaurant by the Trocadero. We wanted to be there so we could see the Eiffel Tower when it "sparkles" We ended up getting a pretty good vantage point by climbing some barriers so we were right in front. We weren't the only ones over there so we felt ok doing it. Oh the things you will do for a great photo!

This is totally out of order but I don't honestly remember what day we went there... We headed over to Rue Cler which was recommended in my Rick Steves Paris book. We wandered down the street and I picked up food from different places for my dinner. I got bread from the patisserie, cheese from the fromagerie and raspberries from this grocer. Those raspberries were the BEST I have had in MY LIFE. No joke. I wish we had done more of this. I'm pretty sure that I had this while we were waiting for the sun to go down by the Eiffel Tower. Then I somehow managed to have that steak frites too... It all blurs together at this point but I highly recommend doing lunch or dinner by wandering down a street or through a market. So much more fun than ordering off a menu!