So, I'm moving to France next week....

6 days, to be exact.

Speaking french has always made me happy. There is something about the throaty sounds, the liaisons, the overall beauty of the language that appeals to me. French is, quite frankly, fun.

The name of this blog comes from a nickname my french teacher gave me back in sophomore year of high school. For those who know me, they can attest I like to talk. A lot. This is true regardless of what language I may be speaking. As a result, my teacher gave me the nickname "la bavarde": the chatterbox

. This nickname has remained apt, even 6 years after it was originally given to me.

So, next year I am going to be an English teaching assistant in a collège (middle school) and a lycée (high school) in a tiny little town called Gaillac, about 65 km from Toulouse. That's a picture of it to the right. So far, the only thing I can find about this town related to wine. Gaillac produces every sort of wine possible, from red to rosé to sparkling. Hopefully, I'm going to come out of this a wine connoisseur. If I don't, then I obviously will not have drunk nearly enough wine.

Since Gaillac has only 12,000 people (none of whom seem to be people my age), I am going to be living in a town 20 km away called Albi. Albi is the perfect example of the type of little

french town I want to live in. It has 50,000 people and a university, so I would definitely be able to have a social life.

More importantly, Albi is chock-full of awesome french history. It is home to two 13th century buildings, le Palais de la Berbie and the Saint Cécile Cathedral. It is because of these buildings that Albi has been labeled a UNESCO world heritage site, which basically means that it has something worth preserving.

It is also the birthplace of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, a french artist famous for his posters of the Moulin Rouge. Since Toulouse-Lautrec is one of my favorite artists, I am looking forward to exploring the museum devoted to him in more detail.

Anyway, I need to get on with preparing for my trip: packing, getting insurance straightened out, copious amounts of netflix, etc. Everything you need to have a successful foreign voyage.

À bientôt!