A little taste of home

While I enjoy the French lifestyle, the laid back attitude and the coffee, croissants and crepes, sometimes there's nothing better than something to remind you of home.

Memoranda is a fantastic second hand bookshop in the older area of the city of Caen. Stocked to the ceiling with piles of books covering every surface, the shop is any (French) readers dream. But my favourite thing about Memoranda is tucked amongst the books upstairs.

Their English style tearoom is filled with the smell of freshly baked cakes and crumbles. Leaf teas served in lovely old teapots and and homemade scones with jam and cream take me right back home to England and the cafés I have worked in. And they make the perfect accompaniment to a good book.

Back to Nature

Sometimes, when essays take over your life and you have nothing to help you through them except the roar of traffic outside of your window, it's nice to go somewhere completely different and forget about it all. 


So walking through the trees in the afternoon sun at Forêt Grimbosq was the perfect break from work. Hunting for chestnuts in the crisp leaves reminded me that the simplest things in life can bring so much pleasure, and it does you good to get away from the hustle and bustle of the (admittedly very small) city and get back to nature.

Fairytale Sunset