Tag: travel

Happy Friday

Happy Friday #17 – Wonderful times…and I´m back :D

Elodie

And we´re back :D, right on time for Happy Friday…I have so many things that made me smile these past weeks that I don´t know where to start.

We landed this morning in Germany and I am fighting against falling back asleep, trying to beat jetlag by Monday. I have about 1600 pictures and a lot of stories to share (including how I met the amazing Rebecca in New York City after gathering up the courage to ask a question at the Teen Author Carnival!)

Hubby and I created new memories together, we drove more than 4000 miles passing through the US and Canada, discovering many new States, cities, beautiful roads, delicious food, meeting some of our fabulous friends or just spending time together…

I will share some of the highlights of our trip (including some pictures) in the next weeks. A comeback is always a bit bittersweet, happy to be home, to be back in a routine soon (including writing, reading and blogging :D) and sad that those particular adventures are over but knowing that those new memories will become cherished ones. Plus, we might be back for a visit in the US next year.

On our way to meet friends…
On the road…

And now, tell me, what made you smile this week?

Have a wonderful weekend!

Blogme MAYbe, personal

I´ll be back…

Elodie

This month (well until my honeymoon :D), I will be participating in Blogme MAYbe. This wonderful idea is the brainchild of SaraMcClung and is a weekly blog format with an easy schedule to follow. For more information and join the fun (you can at any time!), simply click on the banner created by the super-duper-talented Tracey…and today is May I tell you something about me?

On Wednesday, hubby aka The Chemical Engineer and I are going on a three-weeks honeymoon (we got married in August). We are flying into NYC, renting one of those babies (well if the renting company actually does have one):

Source: fordnewsite.com via Devin on Pinterest

We´re going to visit dear friends of ours and spend quality time together…we´re also going to discover new places along the road, we’re going to create new memories…We will be travelling from NYC – Maryland – Texas – Detroit – Cape Cod – NYC…

He doesn´t believe I will not be blogging while on the road but I most probably won´t (I may pop up on Twitter from times to times though but pshhhh…)..so:

See you soon! A bientôt! Bis Bald!

Books, personal

Monday smiles…

Elodie

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Hubby and I spent in France with my family and it was GREAT 😀 I have so many happy news that I want to share with you that I have to make a list 😀

  1. Friday started off quite well. I noticed my name on Friday the Thirteeners (a small group of YA writers debuting in 2013). The lovely Erin Bowman picked my Truth or Dare question: Who is your secret crush from YA lit? You should definitely check out her answer. She even did a Vlog! Oh and if you want to know more about Erin, you can visit her blog or  follow her on Twitter! Not only did Erin answer my question, but I also won a $13 gift card for amazon. Since Erin mentioned COLD KISS and since this book has been on my TBR for awhile, I decided it was the perfect occasion to get it 😀 Yay!
  2. The weekend was really lovely: my parents took us back to the restaurant we had the sort-of rehersal dinner before our wedding in August. The food was yummy and on top of this, it brought back a lot of wonderful memories. We strolled the park of one of Napoleon´s castle afterwards, spent time with my grandmother, sisters, brother-in-law, niece and nephew.  Oh and we played tennis with my dad. Fun all around! On Sunday, we also enjoyed a family lunch and afternoon.                                                                        My mom makes the most beautiful tables doesn´t she? Today, after a delicious brunch prepared by my mom and saying goodbye, we headed back to Germany. I may be turning 31 this year but leaving France is always a tad difficult :D…On our way back we stopped at Hooters, because well, we love wings!
  3. Awards: Thank you Lora for the Versatile Blogger Award and Thank you Word (en)Counters for the Liebster Blog Award! Blushing!
  4. I may have developed a new addiction: INSTAGRAM has been made available to Android phones and I´m loving it 😀
  5. I finished reading THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE this weekend and wow, this book…this story…is brutally honest and poetic. Loved it! I just started ACROSS THE UNIVERSE and I´m already pulled in the story after a few pages…quite happy about it! And next on my list is JELLICOE ROAD…:D I mean, after hearing Erin talk about it and reading Katy´s take on one of the main characters, I have to read it!
  6. Honeymoon, honeymoon, honeymoon…We are full into preparation mode and I am so so excited that we just booked the Isaiah Jones Homestead Bed and Breakfastin Sandwich, MA where we stayed a night in 2007. We are ready to meet old memories there and to make new ones…Plus it will be after we drive more than 4000 miles around the US so I think we´ll be ready to settle in and really relax for a few days. After Cape Cod, we´ll be off to NYC and watching this:

How was your weekend?

Book Review, Books, YA Book Club

YA Book Club: Loving WANDERLOVE…

Elodie

This month, the YA Book Club (brainchild of the wonderful Tracey) is discussing WANDERLOVE by Kirsten Hubbard. I´ll try not be too spoilery (yes, I´m making up words – I´m all for creativity!)  for those of you who may not have read it.

WANDERLOVE: It all begins with a stupid question: Are you a Global Vagabond? 
No, but 18-year-old Bria Sandoval wants to be. In a quest for independence, her neglected art, and no-strings-attached hookups, she signs up for a guided tour of Central America—the wrong one. Middle-aged tourists with fanny packs are hardly the key to self-rediscovery. When Bria meets Rowan, devoted backpacker and dive instructor, and his outspokenly humanitarian sister Starling, she seizes the chance to ditch her group and join them off the beaten path. 

I immersed myself in the story quite fast, after a few pages I was already “in” and I really enjoyed reading Bria´s adventure. The swoony elements were…well…SWOONY 😀 and I could feel her emotions. Always a wonderful plus in my book!

I re-read the ending several times and there are certain passages which made me react this way:

Mean Girls nodI did try to look a tad more inspired when I nodded though (promise), especially at this excerpt (and what better way to have the author actually read it for us – thanks for the magic of the internet and youtube):

This excerpt resonated in me. I left France when I just turned 19. Left my country, my family for an entire year to live with an American family and to take care of children. I thought I could maybe “reinvent” myself.  Nobody knew me there, I could be whoever I wanted to be. I ended up pretty much staying who I already was but I did grow up a lot during that year…

The main reason why I truly enjoyed this story (apart from the swoony bits) is the self-discovery part and for me it could have happened anywhere in the world. She could have been in a resort instead of backpacking and still go through the same emotions.

Having said that, I did really like how Kirsten enabled us to “see” the places Bria went to…I could visualize them and “feel” the water. I virtually traveled with all of them and for that I´m very grateful!

So tell me: what did you think of WANDERLOVE?

 How important is the setting of a story for you in general?

Road Trip Wednesday

Where would YOU go?

Elodie

If you have not entered my “I love reading” giveaway, you can still do it :-): You can win 2 books (up to a total of $30): one for you and one for a teenager or a child or a baby you want to share your love of books with.The giveaway is open to all countries that The Book Depository ships to. Just fill out the entry form by Friday March 16th.

 Today is Road Trip Wednesday 🙂 RTW is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway’s contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on our own blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody’s unique take on the topic.

This week´s topic: In honor of the release of Kirsten’s WANDERLOVE yesterday–which is amazing, by the way; get yourselves to a bookstore if you haven’t!–we bring you a travel-themed RTW prompt today! If you could wander anywhere in the world, where would it be, and why?

If you´re planning on reading WANDERLOVE soon, you should join in Tracey´s wonderful YA Book Club as it is the pick for March 😀

Now, onto the question…where would I go?

A castle about 25 minutes away from my small village

First I would not go alone, I´d take my hubby with me 🙂

We would go to my “home” in France. It is pretty. It´s a small village an hour north from Paris, it does have beautiful landmarks around it (see example above) but the reason why I would wander there is simple: we´d spend time with my family, have coffee at my grandmother´s, have breakfast with my parents, go to the movies with my sisters and brother-in-law, spend time with my niece and nephew…see my aunts, give a call to my friends…maybe even pass by my old High school to go visit the teacher who influenced my love for languages.

We would also wander back to the US, again to visit our dear friends…

Now, if we´re talking about a place I´d like to visit: Italy…I´d like to see for Tuscany, Rome, Pompeii…

Tuscany - Sunset (thank you Microsoft Clip)

Where would YOU go? 🙂

Happy Friday, reading, revising

Happy Friday #5: Reading, Revising and Rollers…

Elodie

It’s already the 5th week of “Happy Friday”.  Yay!

Ok I have to admit there will be no rollers in this post…I was just looking for another word starting with the letter “R” 😀

* Happy for Christa: I started following Christa a few weeks ago and I am happy I did  ( I found another Center Stage fan). In case you have not seen Christa´s news, she announced on Wednesday her book deal with SimonPulse. The story of Ani and Ben  is not the kind that will make your heart flutter with happiness, actually it might tear up and break but it seems to be powerful, gut-wrenching. It’s a story which needed to be sent to the world.

* Revising: Chapter 4 and I had a date. We fought. We made up.

* Reading: I am in the middle of a Daughter of Smoke and Bone and wow, Laini Taylor has a magical way with words. I love all the references of men with moustache (for some reasons, this reminds me of one of the short stories from Gogol)

I did a little happy dance yesterday as I joined NetGalley to receive ARCs on my Kindle (thanks to Tarah who posted about currently reading Goddess Interrupted) As you may have guessed from my January books post, I have a lot of time to read…so that will be great to get my fingertips on some not-yet-released-look-at-me-I’m-so-cool-books… And I already got approved for some. (more on them soon…ta ta ta da *that was me building up suspense*)

* On InstaLove by Jaimee: If you have not yet seen Jaimee’s post on InstaLove, go ahead, I’ll wait here.

waits, waits, waits.

Cool, you’re back 🙂 While I do enjoy Valentine’s Day a tad more than Jaimee apparently, I wholeheartedly agree with her take on InstaLove. My heart beats a bit faster when I can see the sparks between people as they first lay eyes on each other call it InstaYummfactor) and then the fireworks when they first interact with one another (call it InstaConnection). I do need the connection though, the laughing or the long discussions. I need something. If there are no explanations or if the love is just based on the looks or does not seem reciprocated (the guy is a jerk, stalker, ignores her completely…) then it can become more of an InstaObsession. While the story can still work if the main character conveys this to the reader (and not just the I am so happy, we’re in love), it needs to develop.

* Honeymoon: And because I just talked about love, I am happy to report that hubby and I have finally booked our flights for our honeymoon (we got married in August). We’re going to the US for 3 weeks. Road Trip. Mustang. Leaving the work Blackberry at home. We’re going to visit dear friends in many States  and spend some time in a Bed and Breakfast in Cape Cod…and I will get to roam the streets of Manchester-By-The-Sea (that is where my WIP takes place…I talked about it in my Dreaming of a Writing Retreat post)…

I wish you all a wonderful week-end and I am looking forward to know what made YOU smile this week 🙂 

writing

Dreaming of a writing retreat…

Elodie

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway’s contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered. In the comments, you can hop from destination to destination and get everybody’s unique take on the topic.

This Week’s Topic:
Describe your dream writing retreat. Where would you go? Who and what would you bring?
I was talking about this with my hubby not too long ago…so it’s quite a timely post 🙂
I currently write in the train while I commute or on the week-ends at home but if I could, I would fly to the US and hide myself there:
 I would book myself a room in a Bed and Breakfast or a little place close to the sea.  I would only bring my laptop and my kindle. I would go for long walks on “Singing beach”, listen to the sand under my feet and feel the salty breeze on my face. I would sit next to the window or in a little coffee shop and write.
 
Why would I go there you may wonder?
 
I fell in love with that area when now-hubby and I went for a romantic week-end in Sandwich, MA in a great Bed and Breakfast (I can only recommend it: Isaiah Jones Bed and Breakfast).
 
Plus, my WIP takes place in Manchester-By-The Sea 🙂
 
What would be YOUR dream writing retreat?
 
 
 
Observations, Train

Week 42 – Ranting about coughing…

Elodie

No I am not coughing as I am typing this. This post will not be about my writing even though I am very pleased to announce that I almost reached my goal of 300 words per day this week.

However as a commuter I urge my co-commuters to realize some basic facts: we’re in a small place together, we might be pushed against one another, creating more intimacy than what we ever intended, sitting or standing…so if you do cough or sneeze please make sure that it does not reach the other person.

I assure you there are ways to avoid these little accidents…

This was just a little rant as for the past two days I thought about opening an umbrella, carrying a mask or just anything to avoid the little drops coming out of other passengers.

I understand one has to go to work but please, not putting something, anything in front of your mouth when you are coughing/sneezing is just plain wrong.