My parents are here! They're finally here in France! And I, for one, couldn't be more excited.

We've had a couple of great days. Thursday was spent showing them the town of Tours and basically keeping them awake until a socially acceptable local bedtime. Yesterday, I took them to the chateau de Chenonceau. This is now my fourth visit there, and I have a feeling if anyone else comes to visit me, that number will keep climbing. They had a blast and really enjoyed all the gardens, not to mention laughing about the "favorite lady."

Today, since B was off work and we had the car, we headed to Vouvray-sur-Loire to sample some Vouvray. It's a type of wine made entirely with Chenin Blanc grapes, and it can be either sparkling or still. We love the sparkling Vouvray. I fell in love with it back in 2011, B hopped on board, and now Mom and Dad are fans, too. We visited two wine "caves," one of which was much larger and more commercial and the other which was small and family-run. Both had great selections, just very different vibes. It was a great day.

Even better, my mother, the Margarita Queen (sans sel) who hates wine, has declared that she likes French wine. According to her, "It tastes better than American wine. It's not bitter and dry. It's not as acidic. It goes down smoothly."

So there ya have it. So grateful to have my parents visit- the only thing that could possibly make this trip better is if brother and sissy-in-law could be here with us. Oh well...September will be here soon enough ;)

xoxo,
E & B (and Mom and Dad)

It took two and a half months, but we finally have bikes! Tours' transportation system, Fil Blu, has a rent-a-bike program for only 7 euros a month - a steal, considering it's roughly 15 euros a day to rent bikes at the bike shops. Sign us up!

It felt amazing to be back on a bike, although I do hate having to ride with traffic around the city. But never mind - we had another destination in mind this weekend - Villandry. It's a chateau situated along the River Cher, and you can bike there on the Loire a Velo path. For our fellow Greenvillians, it's incredibly similar to the Swamp Rabbit Trail.

It's also a bit further than our usual trip from the Children's Garden in downtown Greenville to Traveler's Rest. It was 28 miles round trip, and on the way back, I. though. I. would. die. We've been doing a ton of walking and our bodies are used to that, but the pedaling? Haha, no.

When we returned to Tours, we immediately took showers and went straight to dinner (an amazing three-course gourmet dinner, omg) because we knew that if we stopped, even for a minute, we would go right to sleep.

It was worth the pain, though (I think), because Villandry is stunning. Many of the chateaux have a fortress or military feel to them. Not Villandry. It would remind you more of someone's summer home. The gardens are easily its highlight, and they are all different and beautiful. However, they're all very formal and very French. I personally prefer the more natural English-style gardens, but these were beautiful. Pics below. And enjoy them, 'cause I'm not sure we're going to be biking back here again!

xoxo (and ouch),
E & B

There's something new at Something New, Something Different today! Those of you who are particularly observant might have noticed the little "Travel" button I added to the header.

And if you were curious and clicked on it, it would show you a map. An interactive map of our travels, to be exact. The green pushpins indicate places we've gone together, while the Carolina blue (turquoise) pushpins are places only I have been. If, somehow, B winds up going somewhere by himself and then writing a blog post about it, that will be notated with a Furman purple pushpin. But I would strongly suggest not holding your breath for that, k?

If you click on each pushpin, you can see where we've been and follow the link to the corresponding blog post. This is an easy way for you to find what you're looking for if, say, you were curious about a restaurant we visited in Reims, or wanted to catch up on what we did in Germany. It's also a great way for SNSD newbies to catch up quickly without having to scroll through all the posts, especially if they're only interested in the travel ones.

You can zoom the map in and out to see all the places I've tagged in a specific country, or you can see an overview of where we've visited in the world.

I will, of course, update the map as our travels take us far and wide. And since we just booked our 17-day August Eurotour vacation last night (God bless France's holiday schedule!), we've got Italy, Greece, England and Ireland coming up on the agenda, plus the potential for weekend trips to the Netherlands, Belgium and the south of France. Not to mention Italy and Austria coming up with my parents. To say I'm excited is an understatement.

Check it out and let me know what you think. Y'all should know by now I'm the anti-techie, so if you find any bugs or kinks let me know. Not that I'll know how to fix them, mind you, but at least I'll be aware. And keep in mind that this technically works on an iPhone, etc, but it's easier on an actual computer. Go forth and enjoy, and have a wonderful weekend!

xoxo,
E & B

There are days when our being in France feels like one very extended vacation. Then there are other days that bring me back down to earth and remind me that we do, in fact, live here. And when you live somewhere, there are just things you have to do. Personal care things. Like haircuts. And waxing...lip, eyebrow, bikini. I mean, amirite, ladies, or amirite?

PSA: If there are any men reading this, I really, really, really suggest you just skip this post. Go back and re-read the Le Mans post.

I had put this off as long as I could. Our trip to Tampa to Greg and Kristie's wedding in May had allowed Brian to get another haircut and me to have my monthly waxing ritual with service providers who spoke English. For the next three and a half months, however, we are, to put it bluntly, rather screwed.

So today I set off, bravely, to the salon I had seen that accepted walk-ins. I should have known that this was going to be difficult when they asked my name, and I said, "Emily," and they struggled with that. The lady at the front desk finally wrote down "Amelie." Okay, cool, so I'm Amelie now. Great.

Then she tried to explain there would be a wait, only I did not understand what she needed me to do. Did I need to come back, say, at 3:00? Tomorrow? Friday? Eventually she said "quarante-cinq minutes," which means 45 minutes. I understood that. I'm getting really good at numbers. And I could wait 45 minutes. I was afraid if I walked out of there, I wouldn't come back.

So I waited. And a really cute bulldog came in with his owner, so that was a nice distraction. Finally, a girl called "Amelie?" That was my cue. She ushered me into a little room, but didn't tell me what to do (not that I would have understand her if she did). Then she left.

Ummm...okay. There's a table. I assume I need to...ahem...disrobe now? I mean, that's how my waxing salon does it in America. So I did. Only the table was facing toward the door. My apologies to the ladies getting manicures outside the door. I assume you weren't anticipating The Emily Show this morning when the esthetician walked back in. Nor was I anticipating giving it. Je suis desolee.

So then, I'm lying there all awkward and stuff, and she starts on my lip. Then my eyebrows. I'm like, really? Could we not get the other part over with, and then do the lip? That's EASY. But alas, we're in France. And they start with the face and work their way down, apparently. Noted.

I will spare you all the gory details, except to say that I'm still seeing about four spots from where I stared at the lights for 20 minutes. I can't decide if I should have had a drink before, or if I should go get one now.

Although I will say, this was far less painful than in the US. I don't know what kind of wax they're using, but they legit need to export that stuff. It was very gentle. And for lip, eyebrow, and bikini, it was only 32 euros. Bikini alone costs more than that in the US. So I suppose if I must go through this monthly embarrassment in which I flash random ladies and "quarante-cinq minutes" is the extent of my language comprehension, at least it's cheap? What can I say, I'm a glass half-full kind of girl.

So for those of you who think I'm living a fairy tale life, rest assured that reality comes crashing in every once in a while, k? B is due for a haircut soon, so I'm sure that will be another awkward cultural disaster. Stay tuned. And I sincerely hope your morning went more smoothly than mine.

xoxo,
E

When you're doing your required pre-marital counseling, one of the things they like to emphasize is compromise, the ever-present give-and-take of a relationship. The thing is, this is all done in rather vague, theoretical terms. They don't tell you what it actually looks like.

One year, one month, and 19 days after saying "I do," I can tell you exactly what it looks like. It looks like me going to a 24-hour car race at Le Mans. And spending the night in our own car. Pretty sure Mrs. Valerie would never have thought to cover this eventuality in our counseling sessions.

But the hubby loves cars. Me? Well, I don't even like driving them. I like living in France because I can walk or take public transit everywhere. But B loves cars. He is an automotive engineer, after all.

We've seen the 24-hour Le Mans race on TV. Or rather, he's seen the race; I've sat on the other end of the sofa with a book and heard the race, along with the dog snoring between us.

But my hubs is the king of patience (you really have to be, to be married to me. I mean, I know my shortcomings). He never complains when I hold up our travel progress with my incessant picture-taking. He never, ever complains when I want to stop and look in a bookstore, poke my head in H&M, or buy another Longchamp purse. So to say I owed this to him is an understatement.

Besides, Patrick Dempsey races at Le Mans. Did I forget to mention that part? I may not be into cars one tiny bit, but I'm into Dr. McDreamy quite a bit. Yes, I'm aware I'm married, thank you, but he's on my list of 5. And my mother loves George Clooney, so apparently being attracted to fictional doctors runs in the family. It was only with a teeny bit of trepidation that I accompanied my husband to this race.

It was actually kind of fun, although I do wish we had bought the tickets that actually included seats in the stands. It was a LOT of walking and standing. Several of you know we are fairly obsessive about monitoring our steps each day. Well, in 24 hours (mostly on Saturday and a little on Sunday) we both got something north of 35,000 steps. My feet are definitely feeling it. And on Saturday, it was HOT. We are all a little sunburned now (I actually got color. Red is a color, right?).

Sadly, I did not get to see Dr. McDreamy, although this was not for lack of trying on my part. Our fellow race-goers must have thought I was an owl - a very demented owl. I was constantly turning my head, looking in every direction, everywhere we went, just in case he happened to be walking by. But I never got that lucky. Maybe next year.

However, he did get lucky - Porsche, the team he races for, won. So yay for Patrick! Not so much for me, unfortunately. Maybe I'll just see if Grey's Anatomy is on Netflix...which is what I potentially should have done for 24 hours instead of attend the race. Ahhh, life experiences...and compromise. ;)

xoxo,
E & B

Although I love blogging and this style of writing, there are days when it's discouraging. I only have 28 subscribers. My daily hits remain fairly low. Sometimes I wonder if the only people who actually bother to read this are my mother and mother-in-law. Even the hubby doesn't subscribe (of course, I guess since he usually co-stars in my blog posts, he doesn't really need to read them. I mean, he was there).

It especially rankles when I see other bloggers out there getting more traffic, more likes and comments and shares, but their writing is complete crap. We're talking "I was a better writer than that when I was in 4th grade" kind of writing. We're talking, "Are you sure English really was your first language?" kind of writing.

What are these people doing that I'm not? The goal of a writer is to create something that people want to read. Am I really only relevant to 28 people in this world, about half of whom I'm related to by blood or marriage?

Spending hours editing photos, agonizing over which ones to publish, trying to write a blog post that's long enough to give you a good idea of what's going on without boring you to death...it takes time, and energy, and an amount of patience that I don't actually possess. There's been more than one day in which B has had to pour me a glass of wine and say, "Just put the computer/tablet down."

Is it worth it? I often question whether I'll continue the blog when I get back to the U.S. It's just too much effort to put in, and I'm afraid once I get home I'll have nothing to say except for, "I want to go back, I want to go back, I want to go back."

But then this week, I received an email from my cousin-in-law, asking me if I'd be willing to offer blogging advice to a friend of hers who is moving to Australia and would like to start a blog. She and her friend are both subscribers, and apparently big fans. I believe her exact words were, "We both...get really excited any time you post something new. Seriously it's like small children excited."

Seriously? Someone is excited when I post something new? Like small-children excited? And someone thinks I am in some way qualified to offer advice? That blew my mind. To Taylor and Heather, thank you. You gave me a boost and restored my motivation when I most needed it. You'll never know how much it means to me.

I also wanted to say thank you to the rest of you. Thank you to those of you who have diligently followed along from the very beginning. Thank you for tolerating my posts even when you probably want to slap me because you're stuck at work in the U.S. and I'm off at some monument or castle or wine tasting again. Thank you all for your support and love and encouragement. The life of a writer (especially an unpaid writer) isn't an easy one by any means, but thank you for making it feel worthwhile.

xoxo,
E