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Sunday, 26 September 2021

Country Guide: France

Name: France

Continent: Europe

Capital (and Largest) City: Paris

Language: French

Currency: Euro

Drives on the: Right

Time Zone: Central European Time

Adaptor Types: Type C and Type E

Description: France is a country in Western Europe that is famous around the world for its cuisine, art and culture. It also has a great variety of landscapes, including scenic countryside in areas like the Loire Valley, mountains such as the Alps in the east of the country, and Mediterranean beaches in the south. 

Why You Should Visit: Paris is one of the most amazing cities in the world, and I believe every traveller should try to visit at least once in their lifetime. I also really love the south of France, especially the Occitanie region, which has beautiful beaches and great towns and cities like Montpellier and Nîmes. And the final thing I would recommend are the many picturesque châteaux that can be found all over the country.

Fun Fact: France is the most popular tourist destination in the entire world.


My Blogposts About France

My Year Abroad Blog 2017-2018

- Year Abroad - France Update (Occitanie region)

- Language Course in Montpellier (Montpellier, Mauguio, Nîmes, Pézenas, Cap d'Agde, Béziers, Avignon, Sète and Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert)

- The First Week and a Half in France (Paris and Versailles)

- Rouen

- Étretat

- Le Havre

- Dieppe

- Veules-les-Roses

- The Final Part of the Adventure (Rennes)


Charlotte's Travel Adventures

- Travel Tips: Destinations Off the Tourist Trail (Sète and Le Havre)

- Travel Tips: My Ten Favourite Places to Visit in France (Montpellier, Nîmes, Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert, Sète, Cap d'Agde, Avignon, Nice, Le Havre, Dieppe and Paris)

- Travel Tips: My Ten Favourite Cities (Montpellier and Paris)

- Travel Tips: My Ten Favourite Castles and Palaces (Château de Dieppe)

- My Gap Year 2014-2015 (Plus Gap Year Tips) (Cannes and Nice)

- Year Abroad: Dealing With Problems

- Year Abroad: The Best Bits

- Planning a Year Abroad

- UNESCO World Heritage Sites (Canal du Midi, Avignon, Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France, Paris, Versailles, Le Havre, Nîmes)

- Travel Tips: My Ten Favourite Beaches (Cannes and Cap d'Agde)

- Travel Tips: My Top Ten Fairytale Destinations (Château de Dieppe)

- Travel Tips: My Top Ten Historical Destinations (Nîmes)

- Movie Travels (Paris)

A Very Special Trip to Paris

Château de Vincennes

Travel Tips: The Best Destinations to Live in - Part One (Montpellier and Rouen)

Travel Tips: The Best Destinations to Live in - Part Two (Paris)





















Clockwise starting from top left: Cap d'Agde, Arc de Triomphe in Montpellier, Sacré-Cœur in Paris, Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert, Sète, Étretat, Eiffel Tower in Paris, Veules-les-Roses

Check out the rest of my Country Guides here!

Saturday, 18 September 2021

A Little Update...

I haven't blogged so much over the last few weeks. Usually, I try to post at least once a week, but recently I've been busy with work, and quite a lot has been going on in life in general. Because of this, I haven't left my village in two weeks, and therefore have no travels to blog about. But I do have a few pieces of news to report, so I've decided to write a quick update post today.

The first news is that I should have been in France this week. My mum and I had planned a trip out there, and I expected to be spending this weekend blogging about visiting Mediterranean cities such as Cannes, Menton, and maybe Nice and Monaco. But unfortunately, my mum got ill shortly before we were due to go, and we had no choice but to cancel the trip. She's feeling a bit better this week, so we decided to have a little excursion yesterday to the market town of Marlborough to visit an old-fashioned tearoom there. But then my dad got ill as well, so we couldn't go on that trip either.

So all in all, it would have been a very disappointing week, if it wasn't for the fact that this week I got the best news I've had in months... On Wednesday the Chilean government announced that they will be reopening their borders on the 1st October, meaning that I should be able to go there, start my job, and move in with Claudio within the next couple of months! ❤

Obviously, what with everything that's happened over the last year or so, I'm still scared that the situation will change either in Chile or the UK, and we'll be left disappointed yet again. But I've got my fingers crossed that everything will finally come together this time. 

The final news I have is that I'll be undergoing laser vision correction next month, which is something I've wanted to do for a long time. Because of this (and because of all of the things I need to organise before moving abroad!), I may not be travelling or blogging so much over the coming weeks. But I should have time for a couple more local days out with my parents, and of course I'll be in London twice for joint visa business and sightseeing trips! And then from around November onwards, this blog is going to get a lot more exciting... 😄

That's all the news I have for now, but finally, as it's the National Day in Chile today, I just want to sign off by wishing feliz dieciocho to everyone celebrating!


















Image by Rahul Pandit from pexels.com

Sunday, 5 September 2021

London: Part Four

Over the last week, for the first time since qualifying as a TEFL teacher in 2019, I actually spent some time teaching my online classes somewhere outside of the four walls of my family home in Wiltshire! Although I wasn't that far away from home, it was still nice to have a change of scenery and finally experience a bit of that "digital nomad" lifestyle that teaching English as a foreign language offers (or at least did, prior to Covid).

I actually spent the week in Oxfordshire, housesitting and catsitting for my sister and her husband while they were away on holiday. It was really lovely to get to live with a cat for a little while - I love cats, and their one is especially sweet and friendly! In addition, being based in a town, rather than a small, isolated village, meant I could lead a more independent life, which is something I haven't really been able to do since graduating university, due to the pandemic. 

One thing I appreciated a lot was that the house was within walking distance of a train station, so I was able to go off on a couple of trips during my time there! The first trip I took was to Oxford last Saturday, where I spent a lot of time shopping in the Westgate Centre, before having a little walk around the city to see some of my favourite sights, like the Radcliffe Camera, the Bridge of Sighs, and the Sheldonian Theatre. On Sunday I'd planned to go to Windsor to see the castle, but strangely, there weren't any trains returning from Windsor between 9 am and 9 pm, so that's a trip that'll have to wait for another time.

My second trip was to London on Friday, and as the title of this post suggests, that's what I'll be writing about today! It was kind of hard to know what to call this post, as I've already done a London: Part One and a London: Part Two and then a few posts about my trip to London with my boyfriend in October last year. But I've decided to count last year's trip as a sort of Part Three, making this one London: Part Four!

At the start of the year, I began creating a list of outdoor places to visit in the capital, in preparation for the times when I would be up there to organise my visa for my job in Chile. Sadly, I still haven't been able to do this, and have no idea when I'll finally be able to. But it had been months since I'd last been to London, and I fancied a trip there just because I love the city, and so I decided to get the train there after my 9 am lesson, and spend some time seeing a few of the sights on my list.

After I arrived at Paddington station, I took the tube to South Kensington in order to see the Royal Albert Hall. But firstly, I ended up seeing the Victoria and Albert Museum when I exited from the underground. It's a huge and very grand building, and perhaps somewhere I will visit in the future (there's a lot of museums in London that I haven't been to yet).




A short walk later, I arrived at the Royal Albert Hall. It's a really impressive building, designed in an Italianate architectural style, and I'm very glad I finally got to see it in real life.






I crossed over the road and entered Kensington Gardens, where I saw the Albert Memorial. Although I do not agree with monarchy, and I don't believe that so-called "royal" people deserve to be treated as better than the rest of us, I must admit it's a very striking memorial to look at.





I found a very nice outdoor café called Colicci, where I had a vegan toastie and an oat milk latte while enjoying the view of the Royal Albert Hall and the memorial, before going off exploring again!

The next stop on my tour was Kensington Palace. To be honest, I'm not quite sure why it's classified as a palace, whereas places like Dyrham Park and Wollaton Hall (which are much bigger and more elaborate) are only classed as houses. However, it was still quite nice to see, especially as there were lots of ducks, geese and swans on and around the lake (called the Round Pond) in front of the palace.






Then I walked to the other side of the park to visit the Italian Garden, on the edge of the Long Water/Serpentine lake. Inspired by renaissance Italy, this was a really beautiful and tranquil place to walk around. I was lucky enough to spot a heron in one of the ponds!












Next, I got on the tube at Lancaster Gate and travelled down to Holland Park, the next stop on my tour. I entered the park and found the Sun Trap, a little space filled with palm trees and exotic plants, which reminded me a bit of the Tropical Garden in Bournemouth.



I walked through a woodland area until I found the place I'd come to see: the Kyoto Garden. Regular readers here will know that I love visiting Japanese Gardens, and this one didn't disappoint! The highlight for me was the beautiful waterfall, and also the fact that I saw a peacock and a friendly squirrel there!









I completed my little tour of global gardens by passing through the Dutch Garden (I suppose it was inevitable that there would be a Dutch garden in Holland Park!).




On my way out of the park, I also walked through the orangery (a very picturesque area where a wedding was taking place) and the rose garden.





I finished off my trip by doing some shopping I needed to do on Kensington High Street, before getting the train back to Oxfordshire.

I really enjoyed my day seeing some of the places in London that I hadn't seen before. But there's still plenty more that I want to discover. Hopefully, I'll be going back soon to sort out my visa, and will have the opportunity to do a bit more sightseeing!

Read about London: Part One here!

Read about London: Part Two here!

Read about me and Claudio's trip to London here!

Read about London: Part Five here!

Read about London: Part Six here!

Read about London: Part Seven here!

Read about London: Part Eight here!