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...

Hump Day: Clairette de Die

By now you all know that my lovely girlfriend Melina came to visit last weekend.  Melina is from a small village near Die, France which is about a 3 hour journey northeast of Montpellier.the beautiful ville de die - thank you google earthLike any good house guest, she came bearing a gift!  Some delicious bubbly from her hometown.bubbles!This sparkling wine, Clairette is from her cousin's best friend's...

Day Trip To Sète

With our friend Melina in town this past weekend, we wanted to take a day trip on Saturday to somewhere we'd never been.  We weren't sure where to go:  Aix?  Carcassone?  Avignon?  Nimes?  These are what I like to call "champagne problems."  Since Melina and I had spent the previous day traveling by several buses to get to St. Guilhem only to discover when we got there that we'd have to hitchhike to the river...

Hump Day: Estivales

Today I'm finally going to tell you about something we've been enjoying for the last few weeks:  Estivales.  It's a weekly Summer Wine Festival that started in 2008 and takes place here in the center of town every Friday night from 6:30pm -12:30am.  Doesn't that sound awesome?!  Well, it is!  Upon entry, you pay 3€ and get 3 tasting tickets and your very own glass.  The center of town is filled with tons of...

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...

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...

And We’re Back!

The hiatus is over!  The Hub and I had an amazing time back in California and I'm excited to tell you all about our adventures.  I'm lost in a sea of jetlag, unpacking, cleaning the house and stocking back up on groceries, but I didn't want to keep you all waiting too long.  Here are some sneak peeks of our week: The best things about being back in the U.S. was breathing some fresh...

Hipsta-Weekend

I made it through my first of two weekends here without The Hub.  It rained and rained and rained.  I got a few things done around the house, started Life, watched LMN (don't judge), met up with friends for dinner and drinks, and had a lot of fun playing with my new iPhone 4. Especially the Hipstamatic app which, as a former HTC Incredible customer, I've always been very jealous of.  Of course I snapped pics of...