Category Archives: France

Retreat Weekend in Bourg d’Oisans!!

Posted in Faith, France, Travel by

Matt and I are blessed to be apart of a student ministry here in Grenoble called Remix. It’s similar to Chi Alpha (the student group we were apart of in the U.S.), but quite different at the same time because it’s in France. This past weekend we went on a leadership retreat about an hour away in Bourg d’Oisans where we began planning and discussing upcoming events. The most significant thing for me, however, was the time we took at the end of the retreat to encourage and pray for each other. It was moving and interesting because not everyone knows one another very well, but that didn’t keep us from lifting each other up.

During one of the women’s retreats I went to while I was in Chi Alpha we had a night of encouragement too, but there were around 25 of us total, so you can imagine the tear-fest we had!

While we were in Bourg d’Oisans we also got to PLAY IN THE SNOW! And there was tons of it. I’ve been skiing before but I don’t think I’ve ever seen that much snow in my life. We’ve been so excited for Solo to be able to play in the snow, because we were absolutely certain that he would love it. And we were right! He played for hours and hours outside by himself, and the best part was that since he couldn’t dig or play in the bushes, he didn’t get dirty. The snow would stick to him in little balls, though, but he would lick them off of himself!

I was all excited about taking pictures but after the first 60 or so I realized that I had somehow set my picture size to SMALL. Like 640×360 pixels small. I was really upset because I had taken some nice photos, but I took a lot more later to make up for it :)

Here are some of the best pictures from this weekend, both small and large (I only took pictures outside):

This is what it looked like before we played in the snow.

This is what it looked like before we played in the snow.

His bright blue eyes make this picture perfect!

His bright blue eyes make this picture perfect!

Solo leading, like always. He actually wasn't too fond of people riding the sled. When Matt and I went together he ran behind us and barked the whole way.

Solo leading, like always. He actually wasn’t too fond of people riding the sled. When Matt and I went together he ran behind us and barked the whole way.

Bourg d'Oisans

Me!

Matt after he made a bunch of snow fall of a tree--onto himself ;)

Matt after he made a bunch of snow fall off a tree–onto himself ;)

Herbal Essences Commercial?

Herbal Essences Commercial?

Snow puppy!

Snow puppy!

This was Solo's stash of firewood...

This was Solo’s stash of firewood…

I love that you can see the curves of the mountains so perfectly!

I love that you can see the curves of the mountains so perfectly!

Beautiful drive home :)

Beautiful drive home :)

Discovering Grenoble: K fée des Jeux (Game Cafe)

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So one thing I learned about Matt shortly before we started dating was that he is OBSESSED with games; board games to be exact. Now before I met him, my concept of a board game was Monopoly, Sorry, Life (bleck), Parcheesi, etc. But since knowing Matt, I have discovered that there was this entire world of board games I had no idea about, like Settlers of Catan and World Without End (my personal favorite). On the weekends we spend a lot of time playing board games with friends and family, and it’s a great way to spend time with people.

Earlier this year, we noticed that there was a game cafe in town and Matt has always wanted to go with our good friend Sam. It’s called K fée des Jeux; the French K sounds like “ca” as in cat. This week we finally got an opportunity to try it out, and I honestly have to say it wasn’t my favorite place ever. I had a lot of fun playing games, don’t get me wrong. But the cafe also serves food and drinks and the food was not very good in my opinion. It was really cold the night we went so I just ordered some pea soup…but it tasted more like not-quite-finished baby purée. But the drinks were really good. I got something called “Dragon’s Blood” that was basically a blend of blackberry, raspberry, and orange sirop (for those who don’t know, sirop is basically a highly concentrated flavor that you add to water for a nice drink; it can be fruit, citrus, mint, or even cola flavored), and later we all got hot chocolate with whip cream that really hit the spot.

We had time to play two games, a simple pirate game that wasn’t too entertaining, and a co-op game called Pandemic which was really fun. The basis of Pandemic is that there are 4 epidemics spreading across majors cities in the world and, as a team, every player helps to find the remedy and cure the infected cities. I’ve never played a co-op board game like that and it was nice not having to be extremely competitive with one another. Plus, those types of games are a great team-building activity.

All in all it was a fun experience, but the fact that you have to pay to play the games, plus each person has to buy a food or drink item every hour, made it a little disappointing to me. But Matt really enjoyed it and I’m sure we’ll go back in the future. This time, no pea soup for me!

Game Cafe

An instagram collage of our trip to K fée des Jeux.

Thanksgiving Across the Pond

Posted in France, Holidays by

Happy Thanksgiving weekend everyone! I know I’m a little late, but we’ve been pretty occupied over here. On Wednesday we were blessed to be able to celebrate Thanksgiving with our closest friends in Grenoble (there were 11 of us total: 4 Americans, 6 French, and Matt, who is more Americanized). It was a fun experience to be able to share one of our country’s biggest holidays (and my personal favorite) with our French friends. We ate a delicious lunch! I’ve been missing all of those typical American dishes: green bean casserole, stuffing, sweet potato souffle, mashed potatoes with gravy, cranberry sauce, and TURKEY! Plus pumpkin pie, which is VERY American.

Besides eating, which we did a lot of, we also talked about the meaning of Thanksgiving courtesy of Charlie Brown, read some thanksgiving scriptures, shared some things we all were thankful for, and PLAYED GAMES! We couldn’t watch the parade or football games because it was Wednesday and 6 hours ahead of EST time, but we did play “paper triangle” football (what is that even called?), which Matt won, a Thanksgiving matching game, and Pictionary which is hilarious when played in 2 different languages. All in all we had a fantastic Thanksgiving!

The hardest part of this past week was not being able to be home. Yesterday my mom threw a surprise 80th birthday party for my grandfather and EVERYONE (except me and one of my cousins) was there. The last time we were all together was for my wedding, but I was so busy before-hand I didn’t get to spend any time with my relatives. I wish I could have teleported to Maryland so badly! But my mom Facetimed me a few times so it was almost like I was there (technology is great, eh?)!

And here’s a crazy French story for you all. Yesterday I went to get a haircut. It was my first time getting a haircut here. The last time my hair was cut was when I was home in May, so I really needed to go get it cut again. I was expecting it to be really nerve-racking because of the language barriers. I know and can comprehend a lot more French now, but I don’t know any hair cutting vocabulary! But Matt came with me and he didn’t even need to translate much. I showed the hair dresser a picture and told her what I wanted and that was that. She did a FANTASTIC job. Here’s a picture:

My new French haircut :)

But the real thing I wanted to share was what happened after the haircut. We went to pay and realized that Matt didn’t have his wallet, or anything for that matter (no permit, no ID, nothing). If only he had realized that at the start of the haircut he could have driven home and back (it’s about a 20-25 minute round trip drive)… We both felt HORRIBLE. But thankfully Matt’s mom has been going to that place for 15 years, and the hair dresser who cut my hair is the one who always cuts Matt’s mom hair. So they said they would put it on her tab and not to worry. It was no problem at all! Too bad they don’t understand the concept of tips here in France, because if that had happened in the U.S. I would have given her a really good one!

So overall I am thankful for grace! And my family and friends, too, of course! Happy Thanksgiving season everyone and Merry Christmas too!

Hillsong Concert in Lyon

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On Saturday night we went to Lyon to see Hillsong Paris in concert. It was an incredible experience and a much-needed worship night. We had originally planned on going to the city in the early afternoon since I have never visited Lyon before, but for various reasons we didn’t get there until about an hour and a half before the concert started. But we did visit La Part-Dieu, one of the biggest malls in France (and it was pretty big even by American standards). Lyon is the second biggest city in France, and on a rainy Saturday night EVERYONE was in that mall. We had just enough time to grab some “early” dinner (6pm is early here) and check out a few stores like the Apple and Disney stores.

The concert was in a smallish building but the Hillsong Lyon/Paris crew/members/team were all so welcoming! They had greeters at the entry and they offered free water, coffee, and tea.

Everyone entering into the worship area.

The church that was hosting the concert underestimated the amount of people who would come (by over 150!), so it was pretty crowded in the room, but I should say refreshingly crowded. I haven’t been to a concert in nearly two years, and it was an incredible experience to worship with a bunch of strangers all packed together in one room.

“Welcome home” We were RIGHT at the front!

During the concert they had the lyrics on screens (like they do at nearly every Worship concert), but they had the lyrics in both French and English and also had a translator there for when a couple of different pastors came up to speak (which was nice).

Image

Pastor Brandon White (he from Australia or New Zealand…couldn’t figure out which).

But the BEST part of the night was probably the last three songs where I just let it all go. Everyone in the room was all sweaty–because you know…no AC in France–but we didn’t care! We were all jumping and I know I stepped on the toes of the person behind me at least 10 times because I have no balance. I kept thinking about the last SALT conference I went to (SALT is an annual conference for college students organized by Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship) when Kurt Harlow encouraged us to let it all go while we were worshiping. I don’t remember the exact words he said, but he told us you know when you’re really worshiping when you don’t care how bad you sound; that was definitely me Saturday night.

But in all sincerity, it was a very moving experience. This year has been a hard one for me, especially with worship because most of the time it’s in French, and even if I understand what is being sung, it doesn’t have the same meaning to me because it’s not in my native language. The Hillsong concert was in French, but I knew most of the songs and felt free to worship in English without disturbing others.

Overall I was very blessed to be able to go to the concert. They said they would most likely be back sometime in the beginning of next year and I really hope so! And next time I go to Lyon I will most definitely be stopping by the Starbucks!

“Be Blessed!”

It’s Been a Long Time Coming!

Posted in France, Married Life, Travel by

So…I’ve been slacking on updating! I have a big problem with procrastination, but here’s a little update of my life!

We bought a car!

New Car

Since we live in one of France’s bigger cities, there’s a tram here. And also, nearly everything in France is a lot closer together than things are in the U.S., so it’s easier to get around without a car. But since we’ve adopted Solo and since we do a lot of back and forth traveling between here and Matt’s parents’ house in Valence, buying a car became one of our biggest desires. And now we have one! It’s a used 2008 Peugeot (French brand with a Lion logo–roar!) with a nice sized trunk and a sun roof and we absolutely love it! We’re very thankful to have it.

Speaking of traveling, last month we visited Matt’s grandmother in Montbéliard, which is in the east of France, very close to Germany. While we were there we visited Chateau Haut-Koenigsbourg (isn’t that a mouthful? Don’t worry, they only pronounce half the letters in French), a once German-owned castle. The day we went it was pouring, but I was still able to take a few decent photos, so enjoy!

P.S. I promise to update again soon! Tomorrow I’m going to visit Lyon for the first time (no airport this time!) and to see Hillsong in concert so stay tuned!

Chateau Haut-Koenigsbourg

August Getaway: La Rochelle

Posted in France, Married Life, Travel by

Since Matt’s new job doesn’t start until next month, we’ve had a lot of free time this summer to travel and visit many different things. Besides going to St. Sorlin, another annual summer trip Matt’s family makes is to La Rochelle, a touristic beach city eight hours away on the Atlantic. The last time that either one of us was there was in August 2010, the first time I visited France. This time we went there for Matt’s aunt’s wedding, which was especially nice because Matt’s family from Canada came as well and I was finally able to meet them. Matt’s grandmother owns a little piece of land right on the beach in an adjacent town to La Rochelle called Angoulins. For about two weeks we “roughed it” while French camping, although technically we were camping since we stayed in a tent while everyone else had a camper. This was very luxurious camping: showers, electricity, a kitchen, a covered place to eat and hang out, a washing machine, etc. But after two weeks staying there we were quite ready to come back home to our cozy little apartment. Solo, on the other hand, did not want to leave!

We did enjoy our time there, though. The first time I visited La Rochelle and Angoulins we saw a lot! This time we did more relaxing things, but we still took a day to do my favorite activity there: go on a bike ride around Ile d’Aix! I love bike rides and I really miss having a bike. After Matt starts working again I hope we’ll be able to buy a bike for me, but until then I’ll just keep hinting at wanting one! For those of you who read my last post, remember when I said we bring Solo everywhere? Well this was the day Solo went on his first boat ride and his first bike ride. He’s still a puppy and isn’t supposed to run too much, and he’s a mountain dog, not a beach dog, so he’s also not supposed to be outside in the hot sun all day (and he knows it too, that’s why whenever he’s in the sun he immediately finds the closet spot of shade and plops himself down!). So to make things easier for all of us, we rented one of those little children’s bike trailers and buckled Solo in behind us while we rode around the island. At first I was pretty nervous about it, because Solo clearly did not want to be in there. But after a few trials he finally stayed put and seemed to relax a lot. I already feel that we treat Solo as our own baby, but that day proved it! My brother- and sister-in-law rented a trailer for Timéa and Matt’s cousins from Canada also rented one for their two-year old, making it even funnier that we put Solo in a trailer of his own!

Also during our trip we visited the old city of La Rochelle, which is beautiful and is Matt’s favorite place in France (I still haven’t asked him if he prefers it over Disney World so I can’t say if it’s his favorite place ever!). The main landmark in the city is the old fort that’s surrounded by dozens of street merchants and so many delicious restaurants, one of which served the most delicious duck leg I’ve ever had…just thinking about it makes me hungry! Next time we visit I would really like to spend more time in the old city, because it is simply gorgeous and there are so many shops and things to visit.

The hardest parts about visiting La Rochelle and Angoulins, however, are the eight-hour car rides and the lack of the amazing foods from this side of France. Unsurprisingly they eat a lot of seafood over there, but where we live most meals are made with cheese and potatoes! Mmm! Overall, though, it was a very fun trip and we can’t wait to go camping again…and this time I mean real camping!

Some snapshots from our trip to La Rochelle in August. The “mountains” in the middle of the bottom row are actually extinct volcanoes in Clermont-Ferrand!

July Getaway: St. Sorlin

Posted in France, Travel by

During the summer, French people take a lot of vacations! Going on 2-4 week family vacations once or twice a summer is a big part of the culture here. Unfortunately, most Americans don’t have the time or money to do the same, probably because vacations mean unpaid leave from work. But here you get paid to take five weeks of vacation time a year! That’s rather nice!

One of the vacations we took this summer was to St. Sorlin D’Arves, about an hour and a half away in the Alps. Matt’s parents own a cute little cabin there in the mountains, and they usually go a couple of weeks every summer and during Christmas. This year we also spent Easter weekend there to get one last trip at the ski slopes!

During the summer it is gorgeous (well, it’s gorgeous all the time!). The weather is sunny and cool, there are flowers everywhere, and there are plenty of fun outdoor activities to keep us busy. Solo loved it there especially. One of the best things about having an active, adventurous companion dog is that you can literally bring him anywhere, and we really do! In the three months that we’ve had him he’s been to the mountains (his favorite place), the beach, rivers, on a bike ride in one of those little kiddy trailers, on a ski lift, on hours worth of train, tram, boat and car rides, on lots of big and little hikes…and he’s done a lot of other things too that I’m forgetting. While we were in St. Sorlin we went on a four-hour hike up one of the mountains near the cabin. It was a little chilly and there was still snow in a couple of places which Solo played in (pictures at the end of this post). We stopped for lunch near the top at a lake. Overall it was a wonderful day!

Two other things we did during our week in the mountains was have a family picnic dinner around some nearby lakes during sunset, and we took a ski lift up to the same area one morning where there was a small “festival” in honor of the annual sheep pilgrimage that happens in St. Sorlin. Three shepherds migrate with their herd of around 1500 sheep from their winter pasture by the sea to their summer pasture in the mountains. We left Shepherd Solo back at the cabin, just in case he got any ideas to herd/chase the sheep!

A collage of some of our St. Sorlin experiences!

Discovering Grenoble: An English Cafe in France!

Posted in France, Married Life by

A couple of months ago Matt and I passed by this cute looking cafe called The Bookworm Cafe. It was closed for the summer, like many French businesses are, so we decided to come back in September when it reopened. The other day we wanted to go somewhere to study Romans together, and we walked by the cafe to see if it was any good.

It. Was. Amazing. I felt like I had walked into London when I walked through the door, and I’ve never even been to London. Right away the lady working there greeted us in this lovely, stereotypical English accent and offered us tea, scones, carrot cake, and many other delicious things. Apparently the cafe is also a secondhand bookstore, and you can come to read or buy the books (90% of them are English…classics, fiction, crime and thriller, science fiction, children’s, reference, etc.), have tea time, and they also have monthly book clubs which I am looking forward to learning more about.

We spent about an hour and a half there and can’t wait to go back often. Not only were the employees very nice but the atmosphere was like a dream; very romantic and basically everything I’ve ever wanted in a cafe/bookstore.

An instagram collage of our visit to the Bookworm Cafe.

Adventures in Puppy-hood

Posted in France, Married Life by

We’ve had our Australian Shepherd puppy Solo for three months now and we’ve been wanting to sign him up for some puppy classes. We train him on our own but there are a few things, such as light biting, jumping on strangers, pulling on a leash, and not always obeying us, that we want help in improving.

In Grenoble they offer free lessons with a trainer who we went to see two weeks ago. The only thing they ask in return is for dog owners to help keep the city clean by picking up dog poop; easy enough since we already do that. From the moment we met the trainer I was already getting a weird vibe from him, and then I found out why. He’s an older man who believes in negative reinforcement when it comes to dog training. That’s not how we’ve been training Solo and I haven’t read anything encouraging owners to train that way. The only lesson we had was leash training, and his method was to walk with the dog and when he strays too far from you you yank the leash back until the dog is at your side. One time he did this too harshly with Solo and he yelped. I don’t see how that is good for the dog’s neck or how that’s supposed to encourage the dog to trust you or obey you when he’s not on the leash. Needless to say, we decided right when we left that we were not returning.

So this past week we contacted another trainer, who owns an Australian Shepherd herself and who uses clicker training coupled with positive reinforcement. She came over to our apartment to meet us and Solo and she gave us a lot of helpful information. Solo, like with every other living thing he encounters, liked the trainer right away, especially after she gave him lots of treats! We’ll be meeting with her once a week now and hopefully Solo will be able to do everything that the trainer’s own dogs do (the trainer’s website had demonstration videos with her Aussie walking at her side all over town, crossing the street when told instead of darting across, and even waiting outside by herself while the trainer was in the bank)!

She was impressed with Solo–mainly his size!–when she met him, since he already knows quite a few commands. He’s a smart dog and Aussies are a smart breed so we know he’ll benefit from puppy training a lot. One thing is for sure: owning a puppy requires a lot of patience! Having Solo is definitely helping us prepare for parenthood one day.

Our 5 month old Australian Shepherd puppy, Han Solo. We call him Solo for short.

Joining the Blogger World

So lately I’ve been looking for things to do while I’m living in France. It was nice relaxing and traveling a lot for the first six months after I graduated, but now I’m ready to be working again. With my degree I would really love to find a publishing job. I’ve searched for one over here a little, but with not being fluent in French it’s been hard to find one. Therefore, I’ve decided to keep a blog for now, which I hope will be nice for my family and friends in America to know what is going on in my life while I’m “across the pond” in France.

Also, I would love for anyone reading this to post comments and share your blog with me, if you have one. This is my first blog and I am already enjoying the experience quite a lot!