Can I take just a second to brag on my wonderful manfriend who accompanied me over the pond for the first week to help me get adjusted to life here in Europe – and to enjoy a mini-vacation, too?
While I was joining 41 other NC State GLM students here in the south of France, I elected to rent a private apartment for myself, so it was nice not to feel incredibly alone and have Johnnie here while the rest of my classmates were all arriving on different dates and getting settled themselves. Luckily, we found out quickly that many of my GLM gang are all staying in apartments super close to my place, which makes it easy to get together for brunch, shopping, bar hopping, day trips, sight seeing and the like.
Back to the topic of this post, Johnnie Bud and I spent our first two days here just sight-seeing in Antibes – where I live and will be spending the most of my time. This place is stunning and approachable at the same time. Dripping in old world charm on the exterior, everything is visually beautiful but has all of the comforts of home easily available – great wifi in my apartment, lots of shopping and dining, and a store called Monoprix that is basically Euro Target… it’s short walk from my apartment and every time I walk in, I spend at least $75 on all the random things one collects at a wander through Target.
We’ve also found lots of great food, but Antibes really feels like a vacation destination in that a lot of smaller businesses are currently closed for an entire month for holiday and vegetarian menus aren’t the most widely available. However, there are several markets, including an open air farmer’s market within steps of my apartment, so I’m doing lots of cooking now that I’m settled and shopping several times a week for fresh food rather than a weekly stock-up trip like at home. (That’s also partly due to the fact that most apartments here have refrigerators that are a fraction of the size of one back home.)
Up Next: Pics from Sunday Funday in Cannes and a Monday in Monaco/Monte Carlo!
