Practical Wanderlust

Off-Beat Couple's Travel Blog

What not to do on a France road trip through Bordeaux, Avignon, Seillans, Provence, and the French Riviera!
Europe, Travel Stories & Fails

Winter Road Trip Through France: What Not to Do

Our off-season road trip through France was always doomed. It’s not just that Jeremy and I seem to attract disaster like magnets made of whatever the opposite of disaster is. But we have particularly awful luck when it comes to cars. But here we were, renting one in France in January. What could go wrong? … Everything, of course. This is the story of our doomed French road trip. Or as I like to call it, the story of the time we ran a BMW into into a medieval castle.

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  • [INSPIRATION AT HOME] #ad At the risk of sounding anti-climactic, traveling full time taught us how much we value having a home base. Yes, y'all, we missed our couch SO MUCH. We are the ultimate homebodies! But there's truly nothing like waking up in your own bed surrounded by things that bring you joy to make you feel grounded and happy. This is particularly important if your home also happens to be your office and you spend 99% of your time sitting around in your apartment in sweatpants writing about travel😂. . I've learned this year that in order to cultivate an environment that fuels me with inspiration and creativity, I need to surround myself with things that invigorate me. So we've started picking up little travel souvenirs here and there: a singing bowl and a carved elephant from Nepal, a layered pyramid from Ecuador, postcards from everywhere. We place these around our apartment so that everywhere we look, we're reminded of all the incredible places we've visited in this great, big, wide world. Nothing inspires me to write about travel more than being surrounded by memories of all the places I've been! . We also have a collection of our most valuable travel tools: books! There's nothing like a book to transport you to somewhere amazing. We're both avid readers, and we have a whole hallway lined with bookshelves; Jeremy's dream is to one day have of an office full of bookcases from floor to ceiling, Beauty and the Beast style. . We read everything from novels to non-fiction, and of course, guidebooks. Travel guidebooks not only inspire us to visit new places, but help us feel like those dreams are achievable. The newest addition to our collection is the Moon Camino de Santiago guidebook. Hiking the Camino de Santiago has been a dream of mine for years, and between the colorful, informative pages of my @moonguides and the photos & blog posts from my friend Carol at @wayfaringviews (who's currently hiking her way down a 250-mile stretch of the trail on her 2nd pilgrimage), those dreams feel more and more achievable each day. . What inspires & motivates you at home? Do you have a collection of travel books & souvenirs too? Drop us a comment!
  • [POKHARA, NEPAL] Snowy Himalayan peaks. Lush green hills. A peaceful, shimmering lake dotted with bright blue boats. Skydivers and paragliders soaring high above. Welcome to Pokhara, Nepal! Best known as the gateway to the Annapurna Circuit, Pokhara is also the soft adventure capital of Nepal. . After the overwhelming, dusty chaos of Kathmandu, arriving in Pokhara felt like a breath of fresh air - literally and figuratively. Literally because I'd been wearing a mask to protect my lungs all week. And figuratively, because Pokhara is a peaceful, beautiful, quiet lake town. I'm more of a country girl than a city girl (I grew up on a farm in Kentucky, remember?) and Pokhara was absolutely perfect. . We arrived in Pokhara at night, and it felt like we'd entered another world. Bright lights lined the streets, enticing us with food from every country, dance and karaoke clubs, shops full of cashmere blankets and singing bowls, and outdoor gear for the trekkers who flock to Pokhara. . Although we weren't here for a trek, we did explore Pokhara's bright green hills on a hike to the Shanti Stupa, a Peace Pagoda perched at the top of steep stone stairs. Our group bounded up the stairs, eager to stretch their legs after several days of 12+ hour drives along dusty, unpaved roads. But I took about 10 sweaty steps in the 85-degree heat and opted to take the scenic route instead (I am VERY ill-equipped I am for hiking in hot places, y'all, Northern California spoils me). . After our hike, our guide drove us to a handicraft market - Pokhara has some of the best in all of Nepal - but instead of shopping, we walked right through the market and emerged at the ornate entrance of a cave. Inside the cave we found a cow statue and a waterfall. Nepal is full of surprises..Early the next morning, we woke up at 4am and sat in mountain traffic for 2 hours so we could watch the sun rise over the Himalayas. We stood in the rain and watched fog rolling in over the hills, but the mountains were completely hidden from view. Somehow, I wasn't disappointed at all. I know I'll be back to catch that view. . Do you prefer big cities or quiet towns? Drop me a comment below!
  • I've been struggling to find the best way to tell the story of Nepal. Nepal is full of sound and movement. How can pictures and words do justice to the pounding feet of Tharu dancers, the spinning of prayer wheels, fields of rippling elephant grass, torn prayer flags fluttering in the wind? . Nepal is an explosion of sights, smells, and sounds. The word "overwhelming" comes close, but falls short - overwhelm causes anxiety. Nepal feels more like slipping into a welcoming, friendly crowd and letting its momentum whisk you away on a joyful, chaotic journey. . While I sift through hundreds of photos and video clips from my 2.5 week trip to Nepal and, the best I can do is to give you moments. Snippets. Bite-sized pieces of Nepal to hold and examine and savor. I know it's not enough, but you'll just have to visit Nepal to get the whole experience. . My first bite-sized chunk: the Boudhanath Stupa in Kathmandu. A stupa is, for all intents and purposes, like a large, round temple. Except instead of going inside of it, you circle around outside of it, walking a sacred Pradakshina path. The Boudhanath is very, very old and so enourmous I couldn't capture it in a vertical photo; just the very top, high above me. Surrounding the stupa are walls of shops and monasteries, and in between is a circular sea of people. Around and around they go, chanting, praying, singing. . During the month we visited, it was said to be auspicious to circle the Stupa 13 times. I managed 2 before I got dizzy from all the circling and pulled off to watch. There is no good place to be standing still in a sea of movement, so I made my way up to an ornate monastery overlooking the Stupa, where I met a monk. He had a cell phone. I didn't know monks could have cell phones. My new friend told me that he'd been a monk for over 20 years and yes, sometimes he wished he wasn't. He was so open, and I found myself struggling to ask him the right questions. I kept coming back to "why?" But our languages fell short, and without spirituality, I couldn't fully grasp his answers. So instead, we watched the sun set over the Stupa together in the rain. . Where have you visited that defied description?
  • [DREAMING BIG] What a whirlwind this past month has been. I literally made a complete 360 across the globe as a hosted speaker and delegate at two incredible travel conferences, and MAN, am I pinching myself. . FLASHBACK: In June 2016, three long years ago, I was back at my old job. I had put in my notice and nervously published my first ever blog post, titled "Today's the Day I Quit My Job to Go Travelling" (yes, it comes up on Google, I just checked 😂). I was doing my best to tie up loose ends, assuring my supportive but anxious co-workers that I'd be back after a year (probably), and internally screaming. Did I really just throw away a job I genuinely enjoyed in favor of chasing a crazy, scary dream?. Worst-case scenarios plagued me. What if the savings I'd been carefully piling up for 5 years ran out? What if we got sick while traveling? What if we were robbed, mugged, knifed, or kidnapped? What if traveling stressed our fledgling marriage to the breaking point (probably the most unlikely scenario of all)? What if we couldn't find jobs when we returned? What if, what if, what if?? . But in all those what-ifs, there were a few that never even crossed my mind: what if our travel blog took off? What if it started earning us money before our savings ran out? What if it enabled us to spend more time together and with our friends and family? What if it replaced and outpaced my old corporate salary? What if I didn't return to an office job at all? What if, 3 years from now, I found myself being flown all the way around the world? . I never imagined myself on an international stage speaking about blogging. I never dreamed that I'd find myself here in Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha, learning about the rich and beautiful cultures of Nepal. . How could I? I had only published a single blog post. . And yet, here I am. Pinch me; I must be dreaming. . Do you have wild, crazy dreams that seem too impractical to be achievable? Dream big with me in the comments! . #visitnepal #HTM2019 #GatewaytotheHimalayas #LifeTimeExperiences #thisissustainable⁣
  • I’ve been having the most incredible few weeks in Austria and Nepal! I haven't posted because I’ve been too busy actually, like, DOING things, but I’ll catch y'all up soon! In the meantime I want to share something I've been mulling over on. long, bumpy, dusty van rides through Nepal. .⠀ Something I’ve realized this week that the best part of being a travel blogger isn’t actually the travel (although it's rad). It's being able to create memories in incredible places with people I love. It's eating pasta in Italy with my Mom. It’s wandering around the streets of Cartagena, Colombia at 2am with my BFF. It’s late night beignets in New Orleans with my husband and one of his closest friends. It’s browsing dusty old bookstores in Boulder, Colorado with my two best friends from home.⠀ .⠀ And it’s also creating memories with new friends. Like attending a TV taping and meeting Anne Hathaway’s parents in Los Angeles with @passportsandplates and @happytowander and getting Mexican with @megcale. Sharing childhood stories over pizza in Graz, Austria with @huesofdelahaye and @the_mindful_mermaid. Chatting over schnitzel in Vienna with @bordersofadventure and @carlyhulls. Yodelling in Graz with @livesharetravel and the entire #PropelGraz conference crew. Shopping for cashmere blankets and singing bowls in Pokhara, Nepal with @kelleytravels and @honeybirdtravel and then meeting up with @twowanderingsoles (FINALLY!) for dinner. And so many more perfect moments. Like, what kind of amazing job do I have that I get to hang out with wonderful friends in beautiful places all over the world?! Pinch me. This is really my life?!⠀ .⠀ I’ve never felt luckier than I have this month. Even though I’m always sad to travel without Jeremy, I haven’t been alone for a moment - I’ve had friends with me every step of the way. So today I'm feeling deep, incredible gratitude. Who knew that starting a crappy little Blogspot blog with an MS paint banner would eventually lead me here?!⠀ .⠀ What are you feeling grateful for today? Or if you’re having a sh*t week and gratitude is the last thing on your mind, tell me about a memory you shared with someone in an amazing place! . 📸: @happytowander
  • Today is our 3rd wedding anniversary!!👰🏻💕🤵 we've had 3 amazing years of being legally obsessed with each other. 🎉This is the first year we’re actually celebrating! We left for our year-long honeymoon right after our wedding and were still honeymooning on our first anniversary (we spent it on a long bus ride in Mexico). Last year I was attending a travel conference, and today I was actually supposed to be on a flight to a conference… but instead I’m arriving late and we’re going out for dinner and to see Hamilton. Priorities! . I wanted to share some mushy wedding photos and tell you a little about our wedding in the form of FUN FACTS! 🤓Hold onto these in case of Liaremy Trivia later...⠀ . 🌲 We got married in a redwood grove at the Berkeley Botanical Gardens. We felt tiny and insignificant and it was pefect. ⠀ .⠀ 👠I didn't want to be distracted by sore feet, so I went barefoot. At the time we were frequent barefoot hikers, so it didn't seem that nuts. In retrospect, it definitely seems nuts. . 📝We created themed Wedding Speech Mad Libs for our guests to fill out, in the style of stereotypical obnoxious wedding guests (IE the still-attached ex, the jealous single older sibling, the uncomfortably drunk friend from college, etc). Sadly, someone threw them away before we had a chance to read them! Luckily we got to see a few performed live. . 🍋In an effort to save $$ I did as much DIY as possible. I DIY’d my makeup, invitations, centerpieces, & favors. I made my bridal party forage lemons and eucalyptus sprigs from our neighborhood for decoration. We wrote our ceremony from scratch and had a friend officiate. Special thanks to our amazing community of loving, generous friends/manual laborers (y’all are the best). .⠀ 🎤We had a karaoke reception MC’d by our favorite Karaoke DJ, the amazing @rogerniner! Our first dance/performance as a married couple was Time of Your Life, attempted lift & all. . ❤ Each day since our wedding has been filled with disgusting, mushy, unconditional love. Marriage is the best! 10/10, we highly recommend it. . 💍Tell me a story about the best wedding you've ever attended in the comments!
  • Last week was Teacher Appreciation Week, so even though I like to think I appreciate Jeremy every day, I want to give him an extra shout-out (even though I'm a few days late, whoops). He deserves it. .⠀ Jeremy, aka Mr. Garcia, is the kind of teacher who would do anything for his kids. Extra office hours. Texts on nights and weekends. Phone calls on vacation. Weekends spent planning an educational field trip to Colombia with @take_flyte_org (psst: the donate link to help support the trip is in our bio! Everything helps😉).But it's not just about dedicating his time. Every day he strives to better his ability to instruct both his kids and lead his team (he's also a grade lead, & attending night school classes - free time? what's that?). He provides emotional support, guidance, and encouragement. He provides unconditional love and acceptance. He cheers his kids' successes and gives them the ol' "I know you can do better" disappointment speech when they don't meet expectations. And he does it all with plenty of jokes (although to be fair, most of them are terrible).⠀ . Mr. Garcia is the kind of teacher that you remember from high school years later. The wise-cracking, tell-it-like-it-is hard-a** who will always be there when you really need help and support. The "tough but fair" teacher. The teacher who demands your respect, but knows when to break character and crack jokes. The teacher who gets your meme reference but turns it into an awful joke that makes you cringe. The teacher who listens to the same music as you, but plays it off like he isn't cool. The teacher you add on Instagram and Facebook and come to with your struggles in college and hit up for a beer after you turn 21 (his first graduating class just turned 21, we're reeling). He's that kind of teacher. And the world needs more teachers like that. . In the era of school shootings, being married to a. high school teacher is a little terrifying. But Jeremy always tells me that the best way to prevent a school shooting is to tell his kids how much he loves them every single day. And he does. . Do you have a teacher who made a positive impact on you in high school? Tell me all about them in the comments!
  • You wouldn't know how STRONG I am by looking at me. You wouldn't know how many years I've spent training myself - both emotionally and physically - to develop that strength. You wouldn't be able to tell how far I've come. How hard I've pushed myself. How much I've trained. . To become strong emotionally, I trained my mind. I learned how to look at myself in the mirror and say kind things - sometimes out loud, sometimes SHOUTING over the negative voice in my own head. I had to learn to forgive myself for being a flawed and imperfect person. I had to pull myself from the brink of death and recover from repeated instances of trauma. I even had to learn how to eat again. . To become strong physically, I had to train my body. I had to learn how to activate muscles that had NEVER been activated. I had to accept how weak I was, that I lacked physical strength and mobility, and lean into those weaknesses in order to correct them. I learned to identify those weaknesses and failures as data - useful information that could inform my training and help me improve.. When I started powerlifting, I couldn't even lift the bar. I couldn't even get into a squat without falling over - that took me a full year to fix. When I started hiking, I couldn't go for more than a few minutes at a time without needing a break to catch my breath. When I started rock climbing, every inch up the wall felt like torture. . When I started recovering from my eating disorder, the biggest challenge was owning up to the pain I'd been inflicting on my own body. It was apologizing to myself for the torture I'd put myself through, and making amends with my tormentor: myself. .I'm not perfect. But in powerlifting, you have to fail in order to build more muscle. I find the same is true for emotional strength.. Today, I am STRONG - both emotionally and physically. I still train my mind and my body, because training never stops - it's a lifelong practice. And the more I train, the easier it gets to face challenges that I face - because my training has prepared me for it. . In what ways are you strong? Let's celebrate our strengths (and lovingly, fearlessly acknowledge our weaknesses) in the comments!

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