C'est Christine l Solo Female Travel Blog

Catch you later, California

For the next 24 hours or so, I’ll be inching my way closer to Nice, France (via Chicago and Frankfurt). I can’t wait to write (and share photos!) when I finally arrive–but keep an eye on my Twitter for updates from the road. Or airport. Whatever. Also, I would like to sincerely thank the Iceland [...]

April 20, 2010 Continue reading…

There’s no place like home

Leaving home is a bittersweet thing. I love Northern California: boiling summers in Sacramento, playing the tourist in San Francisco, living down the street from the most famous start-up Internet companies in the world. Yet I’m looking forward to settling down in a city (and country) that was established before interstate highways and cookie-cutter suburban [...]

April 19, 2010 Continue reading…

Paris has gone to the birds

When I think of markets in Paris, I generally envision fresh fruits, huge rolls of cheese, pastries still warm to the touch. Maybe a few dead chickens hanging in the butcher’s stand. Birds usually don’t cross my mind. However, on my last trip to Paris, my mom and I discovered Marché aux Oiseaux–translated, the bird [...]

April 18, 2010 Continue reading…

Worrying is like a Ferris wheel: you go around without really getting anywhere

As my departure date inches closer (countdown: three days left in the States), I seem to be hearing the same question over and over again: Are you nervous? Well…no. I’m moving to a beautiful beach for six months. The sun will be shining and I will be tan, without breaking my “no tanning bed” resolution [...]

April 16, 2010 Continue reading…

Quiche: the fancy name for eggs and bacon pie

Apparently real men don’t eat quiche. Typical. I feel like quiche is completely misunderstood by Americans. We assume that because it’s French (fun fact: it actually originated in Germany), it must be snooty, difficult to cook or not enough to fill you up. However, quiche is pretty delicious (it’s basically eggs and bacon in a [...]

April 15, 2010 Continue reading…

Oh, the places you’ll go!

I’m a little bit torn about traveling in Europe while I’m in Nice. On one hand, I want to completely immerse myself in the French Riviera and create a life there (read: I have to make limited funds stretch for six months). I want to spend my free time exploring the area around me: Cannes, [...]

April 14, 2010 Continue reading…

A lifelong love affair with France

Contrary to popular belief, I’m not French. Not a splash of that cheese-loving, surrender-monkey French blood in my body, yet I’m as Francophile as they come. In case you were wondering why this German-Italian-Irish-Polish melting pot shunned her own cultures and embraced France, here’s why.