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About

Hi, I'm Kristin. I'm a content creator moving to southern France to teach English. I'm all about exploring new places, practicing my French and sharing blogging tips. Allez-viens!
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There’s nothing like home sweet home🏡 After 1

There’s nothing like home sweet home🏡 After 10 days of traveling, I was ready to be home. This past week I took a road trip with another English teaching assistant throughout the Côte d’Azur and to Lac de Sainte-Croix.

Our stops included: Cannes, St. Tropez, Nice, Monte Carlo and a smattering of other towns. And it was fabulous!

The deep blue of the Mediterranean never fails to take my breath. The cuisine made me drool. And my postcard collection grew exponentially.

It’s so sweet to see dreams and hard work come to fruition. I spent the summer working multiple jobs so that I could travel and enjoy life in France. And this week was exactly that💗

Step👏🏼out👏🏼of👏🏼your👏🏼comfo

Step👏🏼out👏🏼of👏🏼your👏🏼comfort👏🏼zone👏🏼

That’s been a theme these past few months. When I stop and think about all the change I’ve encountered over the past 4ish weeks, I’m a bit floored. And add in a global pandemic, too🙃

Several years ago, I lived in France for a summer. But in all honesty, it was a really tough summer. (And the more I talk with travel lovers and expats, I’m finding how common it is to have a bad experience.) After coming home that summer, I’d written off living in France. I had been so lonely and depressed.

But I just couldn’t shake my love for France. And as glamorous as my life seems right now, there is soooooooo much stepping out of my comfort zone.

This past week I’ve been on vacation in southern France with an assistant I met on the internet. We rented a car and a smattering of Airbnbs. A million things could’ve gone wrong.

And you know what? Some things did. We got lost, our car’s engine light turned on, we got stuck in a pedestrian zone while driving, my beautiful leather purse got a major gash on it, our St. Tropez apartment was a literal shoebox.

It’s easy to take bumps in the road (like a tough summer abroad or a dent on a car) and let it run the show. It’s easier to be comfortable and to avoid pain, problems and mistakes.

But wow, after fighting the what ifs of moving back to France and taking a spontaneous road trip with someone I barely knew, I’m learning stepping out of my comfort zone is one of the best things you can do for yourself🌟

Paris is cool and all, but wow, the south of Franc

Paris is cool and all, but wow, the south of France is where👏🏼it’s👏🏼at👏🏼

Our itinerary this past week has been chock-full with idyllic villages on the coast. I’ve gotten to take multiple walks on the beach, savor impeccable food, met the kindest French people and learned more history.

I still get giddy thinking about the fact that I get to live here💗 Today we visited @villaephrussi and it was worth every euro. (And we even paired it with our visit to Èze for a combined ticket price!)

Traveling reminds me what a small, limited human I am in terms of the space I inhabit and the period in which I live. Why do you love to travel?

Today my middle school dream came true🤩 I visit

Today my middle school dream came true🤩 I visited my 12th country, Monaco, and got to see some sights where one of my favorite movies Monte Carlo was filmed.

I sipped on an affogato from @cafedeparismc and bought a postcard for my wall and even won a few bucks at the casino😂

Sometimes I get a little stressed about spending money or things not going as planned, but in times like those, I (and my friends) try to remind me to be present. Life will never be perfect, but will you stop to gape at the cotton-candy sunsets and frolic about the square where one of your fave movies was shot?

ME🙋🏼‍♀️🙋🏼‍♀️

To be honest, the past month has been a dream🌟

To be honest, the past month has been a dream🌟 Sure, there have been bumps and tears, but to be completely frank, I’m still in awe that I get to live here. I am living my dream in the truest sense.

But I think about the journey to this point. Yes, the actual flight here was quite the drama (hi Brian aka the man who almost didn’t give me my boarding passes).

But this journey to France has been a long time coming. A little over eight years ago, I started taking French at school. About two years later, I visited France for the first time. A summer spent in France and a French degree later, I still longed for more.

My senior year of college, I sorta froze. I’ve always been the girl with the plan, but I burned out. I’d had my heart set on being a magazine editor for Y E A R S, but months before graduation, I felt spent and unsure.

Over a year ago, I knew I wanted to apply to teach English in France for a year. A gap year, that’s what I needed. And weeks after I submitted my app, Covid wreaked havoc.

This year has been uncertain for all of us. For me, it hit harder because what continent I inhabited was on the line. It’s been emotional.

As blessed and overjoyed as I am to be here, I’ve been reflecting on the toil and tears it took to get here. Life is more glam now than it’s ever been, but I don’t want to forget the emotional rollercoaster called waiting.

In some ways, it makes it so much sweeter because I realize what a privilege it is to be here. On hard days, I remember how badly I wanted this and simply what a blessing it is.

As much as I hated the waiting, it grew me in patience and resilience — two things that have been indispensable for life abroad.

Perspective has made all the difference: perspective on the waiting, on living abroad, on what I want in life. I dare you to zoom out❤️

Yup, I was THAT girl🙈 Ever since starting my hi

Yup, I was THAT girl🙈 Ever since starting my high school French classes, I’ve been one of those France-obsessed humans.

🇫🇷Whenever friends or family saw anything Eiffel Tower-themed, they’d say, “Oh Kristin, this is so you.” My high school classmates would groan at another verb conjugation or reading assignment. But I would be silently cheering. I was that nerd who got excited for speaking tests. I used my iTunes gift cards to buy the Stromae album and burned CDs with French music to listen to on the way to school.

📚I enjoyed flipping through my French textbooks and watching French films in my spare time. I looked up new words ~not on the vocab list~ to use on my assessments. My France and French Pinterest boards are exponentially bigger than my wedding board.

🙈Okay but why, Kristin? Dude, I don’t know. But I can tell you the exhilaration from speaking another language is intoxicating. My stomach still fills with butterflies when I nail my French Rs and successfully use the subjonctif.

📓It wasn’t until college that I met more francophiles who loved to geek out with me about all things France. And now that I’m living here and partaking in a program of thousands of language assistants who applied to work in France, I am surrounded. What sweetness to be surrounded by likeminded humans who are just as passionate.

What are you passionate about, and who are the humans you can geek out with? Tell me in the comments⬇️

Bon dimanche☀️ I haven’t been in France for

Bon dimanche☀️ I haven’t been in France for even three weeks, but I feel like it’s been three years with all the things I’ve done and had to accomplish🙈

Life abroad is a lot of high highs and low lows. You’re living your dream and getting to explore places you’ve only read about or googled or seen in a film. But also you’re thousands of miles from home and all but uprooted from your community and familiarity.

On hard days when my brain can’t seem to produce the right French word or when I start to feel lonely, I try to remember a few things. First, God knocked down sooooo many barriers for me to get here during Covid. Like, it’s crazy.

I also remember that living in France is my dream and that living your dream and hardship are not mutually exclusive.

And finally, I choose gratitude. I have so many things to be grateful for and 100% outweigh the hard stuff.

Instagram shows but a snippet of my life in France. Some days are better than others, but I am #blessed to have the opportunity to live out this dream o’ mine💙🤍❤️

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