la joie partout: May 2016

Marseille, Aix-en-Provence, & Nice

5:18 PM

After leaving Nantes, Brigit, Hannah and I spent a week traveling in the south of France. It was a wonderful way to end my sojourn in France.

Marseille was a lovely city. The culture of the south is very different than that of the north, and it was interesting to see these differences. Another major difference...the weather! No offense, Nantes, but I missed beautiful, sunny days.

We also took a day trip from Marseille to Aix-en-Provence. It was a beautiful and charming city! I also got a chance to see my friend Lauren while we were there! She studied in Aix this semester and was finishing up finals and it was so great to see her. It was fun to talk about our programs, adjusting to life in France, and our semester experiences in general. We've been the two original French majors from the beginning and have had many French classes together, so it was an exhilarating feeling to be meeting up in France, something we've been looking forward to since our freshman year!

Avec Lauren!

After Marseille, we trained to Nice! This was my absolute favorite part of our trip. At this point I got over the initial heartsickness of leaving Nantes and the fact that I was about to leave my two close friends, uncertain of when I would see them again, and these final days together were absolutely lovely.

Have you ever seen water this blue?!

Riding down the boulevard des anglais with Brigit!

Our farewell dinner

The next day Brigit flew to Ireland to meet up with her parents and me and Hannah flew to Paris. The last leg of our French adventure!

study abroad

Goodbye Nantes

5:01 PM

I somehow ended up finishing finals on Wednesday, which meant that I was free to join my host family in Piriac for the Ascension holiday! Brigit was also done which meant she could join us, and it was the absolute perfect ending to my time with my host family, and the best start to summer!

Charming Piriac

Louis BEGGED me to go swimming in the icy Atlantic. As you can tell from the photo, I obliged. It was painfully cold but so fun!

Exploring Piriac at dusk with Brigit and Louis

What a squad

First time seeing a sunset over the ocean #eastcoastprobs

Goodbye ma famille française!

With my host dad and Louis

Goodbye my petit frère!

After saying goodbye to my host family, I returned to Nantes with Brigit and her host mom. I spent the night with my friends French and American and we said our goodbyes. I tearfully finished packing with some help with Monsieur and prepared for the trip to the south.

Leaving Nantes made my heart hurt, I will return one day! I'm beyond thankful for the memories and experiences I gained from this semester. Many thanks to my French and American friends and my host family! An unforgettable four months that will forever be in my heart.

Goodbye, the beautiful, the quaint and the classic "chez moi"

study abroad

Happiness. Fin.

4:41 PM

And just like that this semester is coming to a close. I’m in the midst of finals right now and among the stress of studying I keep reminding myself to treasure the little moments of my routine that I have taken for granted that are about to end. Today was particularly lovely, I got home earlier than usual because since we are in exam period there’s no classes. When I got home Louis asked if we could watch Modern Family on my laptop, (we are currently binge-watching the series together in French). As we started the season 2 finale, with his little arms wrapped around mine and his head resting on my shoulder, I started to tear up thinking about how this part of my routine that I so adore is about to become nothing but a sweet memory.

Classique...

After watching about 6 episodes in a row (what is studying?) and significantly depleting my battery, it was time to eat dinner. It was Louis’ birthday yesterday so we celebrated his birthday dinner today! I found it absolutely hilarious that for his 12th birthday he requested steak tartare and french fries for dinner. For dessert there was a raspberry tart and we sang “Happy Birthday” (in English!) My host family giggled at my singing in correct english void of a french accent. After dessert Louis opened his presents from his extended family before going around and giving everyone a gros bise. I gave Louis his present yesterday and he nearly tackled me in a hug with the unexpected gesture.

Last weekend we decided to go to the Nid to watch the sunset. It was absolutely wonderful and bittersweet to take in this beauty of a place that will soon be thousands of miles away with friends who will soon be thousands of miles away.

"Les filles" so thankful that I met these amazing women in this whirlwind semester!

I said goodbye to Theo, Margaux and Chloé, the kids I tutored in English, and Theo made chouquettes!

We also had our farewell dinner with my abroad program. The dinner was on a boat that went down the Erdre and it was so fun to get dressed up and be with everyone one last time. Me and my friends were being wild as usual, so we had a lot of fun at the dinner...