Bastille Day à l’américaine

I didn’t see fireworks on July 4th, but I did head to the Bishop Arts District in Oak Cliff to celebrate Bastille Day, France’s national holiday, on July 14th.

Since none of my friends here are quite as nerdy nor French-obsessed as I am, I easily convinced my brother Grant and his friends Matt and James to go with. You might remember Grant and Matt from when they visited me in France for Christmas. The turnout was huge when we got there!

Lines were long and treats were expensive, but it was nice to walk around and see the traditional French courtyard game pétanque being played, a giant chess set being used by all ages, and a group of men being judged on the quality of their mustaches. The best part was having my ears perk up at the slightest sound of French being spoken. It happened more often that I thought it would! I even spoke with a member of l’Alliance Française in his native language as I hopefully filled out my entry to their sweet raffle.

Pétanque: Players stand inside a circle and throw their metal ball towards a small wooden ball on the other side of the court, trying to get it to land as close as possible to (and without hitting) it.

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back in franceland!

Who knew my trip back to France would be so full of adventure?!

My life in a nutshell… or one suitcase, backpack, and purse.

Wednesday afternoon, my family & I left for the airport only to get a flat tire on the way. Luckily we left 3 hours early, and my dad is a pit boss. We continued on the spare (at a torturing 50mph) until we reached DFW International Airport. Once I checked in, they weighed my bag and of course it was one pound overweight. I pulled out my 1.25 pound container of chili powder and transferred it to my carry on since the employee said it was okay to do that. Then, when I check into security, I’m pulled aside to have my carry on bag checked through on the special table because of my huge container of Texas spice. Luckily it wasn’t a problem after all and I headed towards my gate.

on the road!

Since I still have 3 months before I will have the pleasure of returning to France, the next best thing happened to me about 2 weeks ago: France came to me!

My boyfriend Michel and his two friends Aurelien and Celine made their very first trip to the US on May 7th. In planning our trip, I had asked Michel for the top 2 places where he had always wanted to go. His answers? New York and the Grand Canyon. I opted for the second place, and it was decided: we would be making the 22-hour road trip each way to Las Vegas and back, with a nice day at the Grand Canyon in between.

4 1/2 months later… !

In waiting for their flight to arrive at DFW, I was checking the flight status online at least every 20 minutes. The time eventually came after 17 hours of travel time for them; I headed to the airport, waited ever-so-impatiently, and finally, they arrived! I quickly greeted Celine, and then there was Michel. Not to sound mushy gushy, but there really aren’t many words to describe how amazing it felt to finally see him again, with no Skype delays or blurry screen images. After a few minutes, Aurelien said “Um hellooo, I’m here too!” We laughed, I greeted him, and after picking up the luggage we drove back to my parents house where we would spend the night before hitting the road the next day.