Life is about saying yes. I guess. That feels like the sort of thing you start a blog by saying. I am not always a person who says yes. I am often a person who says “no” or “mmm I’ll think about it”, or “maybe if I’m well enough”. But this blog is about one particular thing I am saying yes to: living and studying in Poitiers, France for a year.

At time of writing it is the 26th of June 2025 and I returned a couple of days ago from visiting Poitiers to sign my lease and check out the town in which I’ll be living from August onwards. I loved it. The history, the architechture, the cobbled streets and resident accordion player who inhabited them. I went with my lovely mum who also greatly enjoyed the trip. It is the kind of place that inspires you to write about it.

I have been learning French since I was about 8 or 9 years old. From primary school to GCSE, and then A level, and now at university, it is a language I have always enjoyed practising and speaking. That does not take away from my sense of trepidation at the thought of living and breathing French for a whole year, especially in an academic context, but that’s sort of why I’m starting this blog. I want to remind myself that saying yes to things, especially scary and huge seeming things, is not a bad decision. I want to write about Poitiers and its history, this place which everyone says “oh, where’s that?” to when I say that it’s where I’m going for my year abroad. I want to write about recipes I like, about friends I will hopefully make, about towns I visit and pastries I eat. In short, I want to write about it all. The whole experience. Studying abroad is a privilege I am incredibly grateful for, and I do not want to waste a single drop of it. I want to rememeber it all, and share those memories as I make them. Of course, I won’t write about everything – that’s what my journal is for. But I would like to leave some sort of imprint of my time here on this blog. Something to remember it all by. And something to keep me company in those home-sick moments I know are to come.

I’ll write some more about what lead me to studying French and moving to Poitiers “at this point of time, at this point in space” (as Hardy put it) in later posts, but for now: welcome! If you’re reading this, I hope you stick around for the ride. If you don’t want to, or if nobody is reading this, that is aok by me too. Either way, I’ll keep writing.

À bientôt!

Iona xx