Seriously, how is January both the fastest and the slowest month of the year?! It seems like it’s been this month for several years now … not all complaints because I’ve been up to lots of fun aventures! Like I said in my last post, we recently moved office spaces! We’re still waiting for some final touches like a canapé and a new kitchen table, but all in all it’s coming together. And the sunsets have been killer!
I had a belated Christmas dinner with my colocs where we had homemade lasagna. The apartment is still a coloc de rêve (dream house) and we try to do something all together each week whether it’s a little homemade meal, getting dumplings and beer ...
It’s the soldes d’hiver which are the government-mandated sales and let me tell you there are sales on just about everything! With my friend Cassandra, we hit the shops in centre-ville (stopping for a crêpe break, bien sur) before heading to grab tapas with some of her friends.
And the next day was a trip to the spa! We relaxed in the heated pools (with a beautiful, sunny winter day) and popped into the saunas to sweat it all out.
I took a trip to the French eye doctor to test out that new mutuelle and now I just have to buy my contacts and glasses with my updated prescriptions. All in all it was pretty easy! However, the fact that I got soaked in the rain on my way back to work was not enjoyable. Luckily I had my slippers and gym clothes at work to change into because I was drenched.
Then that night... c’était partie en karaoke ! (It was a karaoke night!). My colocs, my friend, and a coworker all had a blast enjoying the night. The next week-end I grabbed drinks with Cassandra, Louise and two of her friends on Saturday and we ended up actually sortir-ing (going out) just until the wee hours of the morning! 💀
The next week seemed to fly by and before I knew it, I was headed to the theatre with my girlfriends! We saw une comédie and luckily I understood (most of) it and laughed along with everyone else!
Highlights of the next week included getting a really cool "Smart Screen" at work where we can work and draw on the screen! We had a blast drawing and figuring out all the cool features. Things at work are always moving at a quick pace, but I've still been enjoying it and getting to create GIFs and cards with our new Photoshop license.
Friday, my bînome, Léa and I headed off to our weekend trip to Bordeaux! I had been looking forward to our little getaway since we had started planning it! Léa had done part of her studies in university là-bas so she knew the ins and outs of the city pretty well. Bordeaux is about 2 and a half hours from Toulouse and our ride-share dropped us off right in the city center a few blocks from our AirBnB. We showered and recharged for a bit before heading to dinner at Mama Shelter.
Saturday mornin, our first stop was brunch! And pancakes! We found a little café that had pancakes that were just ok ... and had a tiny rat outside! Vive la France am I right! After our petit-déjeuner, we decided to walk along the quais next to the river and take advantage of the lack of rain. We saw the famous Miroir d'Eau (without the water that turns it into a mirror!)
We walked quite aways and then decided to rent bikes to head back towards centre-ville to make our journey shorter! We then grabbed a drink to rest our feet for a bit. The afternoon was spent shopping and exploring the little streets.
Bordeaux is home to the longest, pedestrian street in Europe and it seriously reminded me of India with just a sea of people walking on the street! We were pretty wiped and decided to get a healthier dinner of poké-ritos .... poké + burritos! It was really good and we had a chill night in with a movie and some crêpes!
We had a little bit of a grasse matinée (sleeping in) and packed up our bags before heading to our second brunch of the weekend. This brunch was considerably better than the first with viennoisseries, tartines, pancakes, an egg sandwich, fruit and soup!
We dropped our bags off at a locker-storage we found and then s'est promenées (walked around) in the soleil (sunlight) since it was a beautiful day in the upper 60s! We spend the afternoon soaking up the sun before grabbing (another) poké bowl and taking our ride-share back to Toulouse.
It was a lovely weekend filled with lots of exploring, laughing, and eating good food! Bordeaux is such a cute little, city and reminded me of a little Paris!
January had a lot of fun adventures and really flew by, even though it seemed like there were way more than 31 days!
