Live Music in the South of France: Not Too Shabby At All

Seeing live music is important part of life for me and The Hub.  For God's sake the man's been to 108 Phish shows, 25 of which were in the last 2 years.  And the very first conversation we ever had was about a 2-day concert we both attended (before knowing each other), in which I walked 8 miles to get to the venue and then literally slept on a tarp in a field of mud.  But that's a story for another time. What...

Mobile Bed Beard

This is an exciting post because it's the first time I'm using the WordPress iPhone app! I'm so techy here in France. It's been a really fun few days with my girlfriend Melina in town. We walked all around Montpellier and celebrated Bastille Day with a rooftop party. Today went to St. Guilhem to go kayaking in the Hérault River.  The whole trip was 12 km and the last 4 or so were pretty brutal as we...

A Typical Weekend – No Matter Where You Are

Is there anything better than friends, sunshine, sangria, and lawn games?  I think not.  So that's how we spent our Saturday.  We could have been in San Francisco, we could have been in Madison, we could have been in Montpellier.  Anytime you combine friends, sunshine, sangria, and lawn games, it feels like home to me. The Hub and I made a big batch of sangria on Saturday morning and we headed out with...

Sunny Time Bed Beard

Happy Friday, friends!  Just a quick post today.  I've been so lazy all day and all of the sudden it's 5:00pm and I have a lot to do to get ready for the weekend.  Remember a few weeks ago when I told you that the heat is "not that bad"?  Well, scratch that.  It's effing hot here.  Tuesday and Wednesday were almost unbearable in the apartment and I attribute that to my lack of productivity and laziness. The...

Our Home: Brought To You By Ikea

I am so excited to finally share our Home Tour with you all!  You might remember that I looked at 3 different apartments and 2 houses during my search for the perfect place, but the minute I saw this apartment, I knew it was home.  It had 3 bedrooms, a beautiful kitchen, a balcony and was in a great location.  I was so excited to set it up and make it our own.  There was one problem:  We had no furniture. ...

Happy Birthday, Amurrica!

Happy 4th Everyone!  I'm having a bit of America FOMO over here.  No fireworks, no long weekend, no backyard barbecues.  Sigh.  It seems like every 4th of July weekend we're either at a wedding, HSMF or a party.  Always something fun!  To get myself more in the holiday spirit, I took a look at some of my past 4th of July weekends. In 2006, The Hub and I spent the weekend having an amazing time at my first...

Party Bed Beard

Happy Friday friends!  The Hub and I have been really busy this week getting ready for our Crémaillère, which is French for Housewarming Party.  If there's one thing we know how to do, it's throw a party and we can't wait to show our French friends!  We bought a lot of booze and have been planning the menu for the last week or so. Speaking of our menu, another missing "creature comfort" that I forgot to...

Missing Creature Comforts

Moving to a different country is quite an adjustment on day-to-day life.  I thought it would be fun to show you some of the things we've had to "give up" living here in the south of France.  It's definitely a trade off, and we're very happy with our living situation, but it's interesting to see how we've adapted to losing some of our creature comforts. 1.  Car Perhaps the most obvious thing we're missing...

The Language Barrier

Here's something I have to constantly remind myself of here in France:  I am a smart person. Really!  I swear.  I used to get As and stuff.  It's pretty incredible how quickly your confidence can deteriorate when you're living in a place where you can barely communicate.  I feel like an idiot at least 5 times a day.  Like yesterday, it was insanely hot and all I wanted was a nice glass of lemonade.  So while...

A Little of This, A Little of That

First of all, sorry for being so absent lately.  It's a 9 hour time difference between California and Montpellier and last week's jetlag just about killed me!  I've always prided myself on being able to adjust to the time with minimal problems.  I was fine on the way to California, but an epic weekend of late nights combined with no sleep on my flight home led to an entire week of being totally screwed up.  I...