Travel, Culture and All Things France
In depth...
'If there’s one thing you can never accuse me of, it’s of not being curious. I might not always be the expert in the field, but I’ll always have an interest. And where there’s passion, there’s promise, and I promise to share that with you!'
In thinking of ways in which to begin this ‘about me’ section, it struck me that I didn’t want to simply state to you my age, occupation and my experiences in life, hoping that this would provide an adequate enough resumé. And I’m sure you’ve read numerous blog self-introductions that narrate the story of the small-town girl that pines for a big world adventure (not that this isn’t me…)
I will clarify, that to put it crudely, this blog will focus on travel and culture as its thematic, with its primary focus being that of French and Francophone culture (and language), but in terms of giving you an ‘about me’ self-description, I want to be more holistic in my approach…
I’ve always been a ‘how’ person. I’ve always seen this ‘big world’ in films and books, and online or in documentaries, and I’ve always wanted to dissect each element of the process involved in order to get to this end result, this lived reality for some people, and see if I could manipulate my own circumstances to achieve this same reality for myself. I cannot watch one single TV programme, or film, and not consider each person’s individual situation and how they got there. During a gardening programme, I find myself weighing up whether I could indeed design an outdoor space, and how I would do it, in behind the scenes docu-series, I’m scrutinising the equipment of the cameramen to understand how everything is shot, even watching the Olympics, I’m trying to comprehend how the athletes might have achieved this standard. Whilst most people might take things at face value and accept that there’s a ‘big world’ out there, but one which doesn’t necessarily concern them, I’m fascinated by everyone and everything in it, and I want to understand the intricacies.
The problem is, people either simply don’t have the knowledge to help you, or refuse to divulge it. So the ‘how’ has always been a struggle to me. But I’m determined to find the answers.
Fast forward to 2022, and I’m three years into a four-year French and English degree (see, I did include some actual ‘about me’ content in an ‘about me’ section), and there seem to be even more questions regarding the ‘hows’ than ever before. But the experiences I’ve had spending the past four years back and forth in France have enabled me to venture down some fascinating paths to find out answers, and have opened me up to so many different and varying world perspectives along the way.
I’ve also always been someone who has never had ONE hobby, or ONE passion that really drives them, but rather I like to have my finger in many pies, and find that I am drawn to widespread fields of interest, and I have an appetite for them all. And I want to share them with you here (and I will actually let you know the answers to some of the ‘how’ questions I’ve discovered, instead of gatekeeping them!!)
I won’t proclaim to be the furthest travelled (when I like a place, I tend to go back multiple times, hence why I’ve been to Zermatt in Switzerland three consecutive times in a row recently!!) or have the most diverse of tongues (my French is pas mal, but surprise, surprise, I want to learn so many different languages!), but if you’re interested in getting a raw perspective on all things travel, culture and communication, whist also actually providing some answers for a change (which I’ve noticed a lot of content creators don’t necessarily always do!) then this is what I’ll be offering in my posts :)