My friend and former coworker started a travel blog with her friend: Trek Simple. Though we’re in the middle of a pandemic and can’t actually travel, they suggested travelling from home. Their first suggestion, Picnic in Paris, was so much fun that I decided I might try one virtual trip a month. Here’s what I did for my first “trip” the weekend before Bastille Day .

My Adventure

As it was far too hot for me to picnic outdoors, I laid out a green sheet to represent grass and a pink blanket on top of it to sit on for my indoor picnic. I circled the blanket in white lights and dug up a little Eiffel Tower keychain as well. My cats were thrilled to join me, happy to find a new blanket to sit on and also to find that there was cheese suddenly at eye-level.

I heated up some dinner while enjoying appetizers, listening to music, and reading two short books from my permanent collection. Once dinner was ready, I piled a few cushions on the blanket and settled in to watch a French movie with the lights off apart from the computer screen and the string of lights.

My Choices

I decided that each of my travel from home trips were going to consist of the following: music, meal, sweet/dessert, movie, book.

Music: Édith Piaf’s Greatest Hits on Amazon Music (the timing happened to work out perfectly so that the music ended just as the oven timer beeped)

Meal: French bread (left over from my lunch in “Provence” I shared virtually with friends from church earlier that day) and cheese appetizer, spinach quiche

Dessert: Petit Écolier cookies (I remember bringing these to French language class in elementary school for our holiday party)

Movie: Amélie (I have wanted to watch this movie for years, so this was a great excuse to finally do so!)

Book(s): French for Cats and Advanced French for Exceptional Cats by Henri de la Barbe (I have read the former book many times, as I was given it during my childhood, but this was only my second read of its sequel)