For years, we vacationed in the village of Courtmacsherry, Ireland and each year we heard the same lament, “Too bad you can’t stay for the festival. It’s the best week to visit.” In my mind, I constructed a mental image:… Read More ›
expat retirement
By Train, Bus, and Foot: Sénanque Abbey
For years, I’d admired photographs of the purple lavender fields in front of the stark-grey Notre-Dame de Sénanque, a Cistercian abbey in Provence. With our time in Paris dwindling, and with the lavender season a brief mid-summer event, if I… Read More ›
A Day in Giverny and Vernon, France
From the Saint Lazare train station, I caught the 7:18 to Vernon. My destination was Claude Monet’s home in Giverny. I planned this trip the night before, a solo adventure on the last day before a heat wave descended on… Read More ›
A Return to Aix en Provence, France
Aix en Provence and I go back more than twenty years to a time when I was living in North Carolina, raising three kids, and working with a team in La Gaude, France. The first trip I made to the… Read More ›
Making Friends Abroad: The Pétanque League
My husband can’t speak french and never played petanque. But when we moved to Paris, he joined a petanque league. He’s learning the language, the game, and how to survive as an expat.
The World In Between 