Phoebe from Lou Messugo in Cannes

Hello, bonjour, bienvenue and welcome to my blog! As you’re here, doing me the great honour of reading my blog, the least I can do is to tell you a little about about myself and what to expect in the Lou Messugo Blog. I’m Phoebe, a British and Australian passport holder, “from” no particular place with no “home town”, a true TCK* expat, currently living in the south of France on the Côte d’Azur. I adore this part of France – and most of the rest of France – French culture and food. But that’s not all, I’m also passionate about travel in general, so I created this blog where I can shout about all that, legitimately and hopefully usefully.

I run a gite (holiday apartment / vacation rental) called Lou Messugo (hence the blog name about which you can read more here) so I started this blog as a way of letting my guests in on my local knowledge in a bid to make sure they have a truly authentic, unique and enjoyable holiday.  I wanted to let them know about interesting and unusual events, lesser known places to visit and explain certain idiosyncracies about France, French culture, language and food.  It still serves this purpose, and I hope that people visiting France wherever they’re staying, not just at Lou Messugo, find it helpful too, but it’s become so much more.

family in gorges du verdon

I discovered that I really liked the writing side of things and not just the “fieldtrips” and research. I also discovered the whole other world that is blogging! When I set out, I knew nothing at all about blogging. I bought a few books and started to write. Along the way I stumbled across other bloggers and have learnt enormously from them. I’m still learning (hell it’s taken me two and a half years to get around to writing an “About Me” section!) and as I do I find I’m adapting my blog to include more of my interests. If you look back in the archives from the early days in 2012 you’ll see I pretty much only wrote about my local area and Frenchisms. Now I write about travel further afield, expat life and multilingual issues amongst other things. These are all important to me and my life.

Jeph 18th wedding anniv

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: travel is my all abiding passion. I couldn’t imagine a life without it and I started very young – I first moved country at only a few days’ old! Since then I’ve lived in 9 countries and visited more than 60. I’ve been an expat all my life, it is profoundly part of who I am and naturally influences my world view.   I met my husband, JF (a Frenchie), in Hanoi, Vietnam and we have two boys who are bilingual and tri-cultural.  I write about them sometimes and they feature in photos. They are willing and enthusiastic explorers of France and beyond.  Together we travel lots and I write about travelling with children.  It’s something we’ve done since they were born and having kids has not stopped us from continuing on our quest to go everywhere, see everything, it’s just changed it a little.  To read a bit more about my travelling style and TCK background click here and here.  To find out more about our bilingual life click here.

kids_at_Skaftafellsjökull

I hope you enjoy reading about my wonderful part of France and our adventures both here and elsewhere. I’m always happy to offer advice or answer any questions regarding visiting or living in France – particularly the Côte d’Azur – expat life, travel with kids and bilingualism so please feel free to e-mail me at contact(at)loumessugo(dot)com.  I love getting comments, read every single one and do my best to reply.

selfie in midnight sun Iceland

Finally, to stay in touch and receive occasional exclusive content why not SUBSCRIBE to the Lou Messugo Blog. This way you’ll receive a periodic newsletter in your e-mail inbox.  It’s rare that I write more than every couple of months so your inbox won’t be clogged by me I promise! There are also other ways to find out what I’m up to and follow along: follow on Twitter, like my Facebook page, follow my Pinterest boards, follow me on Instagram.

* TCK = Third Culture Kid, for more information click here

You may enjoy these related posts:

The beginnings of a multicultural marriage

Getting back into the swing of things

Souvenirs of an expat life

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