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After two quiet months at home in Prague, while living through one of the coldest winters we’ve had in years, it was time for something better.
A bit of sunshine. A bit of warmth. And a bit of time in the South of France.
Here’s what I got up to in March 2026!
Table of Contents
Destinations Visited
- Prague, Czech Republic
- Toulouse, Narbonne, Montpellier, and Marseille, France
Highlights
A fun and foodie trip to southern France. Charlie and I take each other on trips for our birthdays, and as soon as we found out that Les Grands Buffets existed, that’s what he wanted to do for his!
And with three of our friends in tow, we flew to Toulouse, had a decadent night at the buffet in Narbonne, spent a few pleasant days in Montpellier, and finished up in Marseille.
Toulouse was a revelation — and it quickly became one of my favorite cities in France! Toulouse is about the size of Prague, with just over one million residents. But it feels so chilled out by comparison.
Toulouse looks different from every other city in France, thanks to the pinky-red bricks of the buildings in the city. There are tons of cute little restaurants and boutiques everywhere, and I would genuinely come back here just to shop and eat. The city has a great vibe, too. I can see why people want to live here.
The buffet experience at Les Grands Buffets in Narbonne was incredible — one of my top foodie experiences, ever, and we already want to return in the future.
I’ve already written a full post about the buffet experience, so I won’t repeat myself here.
I will only share that we ate SO much delicious food, and for 65.90 euros per person, we got fantastic value, at least double or even triple the value of what we would have paid for that much food in a regular restaurant. If you’re a foodie traveler or a French food enthusiast — or especially a cheese freak — you should make an effort to go once in your life.
Next up was Montpellier. Montpellier is a small university city in the south, and it felt a bit like a baby Paris on the Mediterranean, thanks to its Haussmann architecture with a few palm trees poking out here and there.
We ate great food in Montpellier, especially after hitting up the markets and bakeries. The eclairs at Maison Bonnaire were especially memorable. Overall, I think this would be a great city to spend a week in when you need to recharge. Just go for strolls, visit the beach, eat good food, and repeat.
And we finished our trip in Marseille…and I’ll put that in the “Challenges” section. You’ll soon see why.
A nice and productive trip to Berlin. Charlie and I went to Berlin to attend ITB Berlin, the largest travel trade show in the world. Oddly, this was the first year we both went.
The show was successful for us both, with lots of good meetings. And we got to spend time with lots of our blogger friends, including some I hadn’t seen in many years.
On our final night in Berlin, we went to see Belle & Sebastian with our friends Daryl and Mindi. They played their first album, Tigermilk, and sounded just as good as they did 30 years ago. The venue, Metropol, was really cool — it kind of felt like a freaky church.
I’m happy to add that this was the first concert I’ve been to of an artist I discovered in my Rolling Stone 500 albums challenge. How awesome is that?
Charlie and I joined a trivia team in Prague! I always feel like I can’t join a team or any kind of regular activity because of my travel schedule, but our friend Jamie invited us to join, and this is the perfect solution — you simply volunteer to join on the days you can make it. There’s no pressure to show up every week.
Our team plays the same pub quiz each week on Monday nights — Prague’s toughest quiz, in fact. Some of the questions will genuinely stump you, especially the cryptic questions.
But it’s been going well. I’m loving working together with a team of new friends. And the first week we joined, we actually won!
And in case you’re wondering, Lewis the cat is STILL being very snuggly with me. Last month, Lewis started climbing into my lap almost every day. I’m happy to report that he’s still doing it. Sometimes Charlie and I will sit on either side of the couch and battle for Lewis’s affections.
Challenges
Marseille was a bit of a bust. We knew we would only have an afternoon and evening there, and since it was a Sunday, we had to take a 2.5-hour bus from Montpellier to Marseille, rather than the train that runs the other six days of the week.
And once we got there, it was raining — a cold, intense rain that came down in sheets. And if you’ve been to the Mediterranean in the off-season, you know that they have no clue how to heat anything properly. People were eating outside in tents, shivering in their heavy coats.
But we made the best of it! We found a cafe with the heater blasting next to the open front door, then we grabbed a table at Les Grandes Halles du Vieux-Port, an indoor food hall with a lot of great restaurants. We spent the afternoon eating seafood and drinking rosé before picking up some Savon de Marseille (the city’s famous soap) and heading to our hotel.
I definitely want to return to Marseille and experience the city properly. There are direct flights from Prague, so maybe a long weekend in late spring or early fall sometime…
And then I got food poisoning. It hit once I was home, about 24 hours after we had our seafood extravaganza in Marseille. (Charlie and Nick were fine, so I’m thinking it might have been a bad oyster.) Thankfully it wasn’t a violent kind of food poisoning — just nausea and stomach cramps for three days.
Finally, Les Grands Buffets is NOT an easy place to make content. I kind of had that feeling going in, so I stuck to just doing quick phone photos and videos rather than bringing out the good camera or video camera.
But if you want to make Actually Decent Content at Les Grands Buffets, I recommend you book multiple seatings, because the night goes by FAST and you probably can’t eat what you want to eat *AND* make content about it.
On top of that, the lighting is dim, and it’s loud and crowded. So just know that. I thought I would share that as a head’s up for other content creators.
Blog Posts of the Month
What’s It Really Like to Travel to Madagascar? — A huge, detailed recap about why this country, while so challenging at times, is absolutely worth it.
Les Grands Buffets — Worth It or Not? A Detailed Review — Les Grands Buffets in Narbonne, France, is an epic French buffet and one of my favorite food experiences I’ve ever had. But would it be worth it for you?
Most Popular Post on Instagram
Madagascar is not for everyone. My first video from Madagascar! I posted this video on Instagram and on TikTok.
While Madagascar is an incredible destination and I loved my time there, it is absolutely not a destination for everyone. Or even most travelers. You need to ask yourself a number of questions.
What I Watched This Month
Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model on Netflix. This documentary examines the legacy and harm of America’s Next Top Model, and interviews many of the people involved.
I only watched Top Model occasionally back in the day, but I did see some of the more memorable episodes (like the one where they made them up to be different races!). And through a 2026 lens, WOW. This show was MESSED UP and they did some truly horrific things.
The worst was getting the models and a group of local men extremely drunk, then one girl who was blackout drunk ended up hooking up with one of the men. She has no memory of it. This was all filmed. And the next day, and for years after (!), the show shamed her for cheating on her boyfriend — when she was a victim of sexual assault who couldn’t possibly consent!
It also made me think of Below Deck: Down Under Season One, when one member of the crew attempted to sexually assault another crew member, a woman who was blackout drunk, and 1) the film crew stopped it and 2) the assaulter was kicked off the boat immediately and fired the next morning. I’m glad times have changed and we are able to see an assault for what it is.
I also watched a lot of Season 2 of Paradise this month. I absolutely loved Season One of Paradise, but I’m not sure I’m loving it as much this season. I think it might be the influence of The Pitt — I love the hyper-realism of that show.
And Paradise, as with the show runner’s last show This is Us, there are a lot of overwritten monologues, strange coincidences, and manipulative emotional moments. Not sure I’m into that anymore. Make more shows like The Pitt!
Finally, I saw Project Hail Mary in IMAX, and it might be my favorite IMAX experience I’ve ever had. The movie is fantastic and flies by, and it’s beautifully filmed and so faithful to the book. An absolute joy, and so uplifting. One that is very much worth seeing in the theater.
What I Listened To This Month
I’m listening to all 500 of Rolling Stone‘s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, which I am enjoying immensely. I am loving discovering new artists and listening to albums I’ve somehow missed my entire life until now!
In March, I listened to albums number 112-93. Not a big month for listening.
Favorite Discovery: Supa Dupa Fly by Missy Elliott. WHAT A GREAT HIP-HOP ALBUM. What I love about Missy’s music is that it feels so timeless. She always makes futuristic-sounding music without any of the cheesiness that weighs down other rappers. You could have made this album today and it wouldn’t have sounded dated at all.
This is an incredible album for dancing, grooving, driving, and just vibing. Everything on the album has a specific point of view, but the songs are diverse and each have a different sound.
Missy and Timbaland were a match made in heaven (and still are) — but I think she deserves more respect on her own, both as a rapper, a singer, and a producer.
Other Favorite Discoveries: When the Pawn… by Fiona Apple, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road by Elton John, Automatic For the People by R.E.M., Take Care by Drake, Control by Janet Jackson, Court and Spark by Joni Mitchell.
Favorite Revisited Album: Nothing revisited! Everything was new to me this month. I think I listened to When the Pawn… once or twice as a teenager.
Favorite Songs: “Limp” by Fiona Apple, “You Don’t Wanna Fuck With Me” by Missy Elliott, “When I Think of You” by Janet Jackson, “Me Myself and I” by De La Soul, “The Ballad of Danny Boyle” by Elton John, “Car on a Hill” by Joni Mitchell, “Wild Horses” by The Rolling Stones, “The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight” by R.E.M., “Asking For It” by Hole.
Get the playlist: I’m creating a playlist of my favorite songs from the 500 albums — maximum one per album — on Spotify. You can listen to it here.
Random Music Thoughts: As the list ticks down, there are fewer and fewer artists introduced for the first time. The only newcomers this month were Television, Hole, The Allman Brothers Band, Drake, and Missy Elliott.
*Disclaimer: QUITE A LOT of the musicians featured on this list are problematic in various ways — there’s even a murderer in the mix. I’m looking at their music solely from an influential perspective.
What I Read This Month
Adult Braces: Driving Myself Sane by Lindy West (2026) — Lindy West’s husband Aham told her he was going to be polygamous and she had to either accept it or end their relationship. She didn’t want it. Aham had not one but two secret girlfriends. So she decided to go on a solo trip across the US to see if she could handle being alone. At the end of the book, she decided to start dating Aham’s girlfriend. And now they’ve been in a triad for years.
I am a big Lindy fan, and the book itself is really good in a lot of ways. I love her voice and her humor, and the parts about travel were the strongest parts of all, even if I didn’t necessarily agree with her on a lot of things. I loved how she wrote about Florida, of all places, specifically the Forgotten Coast and that whole lesser-known region of Florida.
But there are a lot of alarming things about her relationships in both this book, and its aftermath.
I wrote a lot about this in my newsletter last week, and I’m not going to repeat myself. But I will say this: since this book came out, it is clear to me that Aham has been publicly humiliating Lindy for a long time now, and has been emotionally abusive not only to her, but random women (including writer Scaachi Koul, who wrote a piece on the book).
I want her to get away from Aham, because she deserves much, much better. But I have the feeling that all this discourse is going to make Lindy double down.
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (2021) — Middle school science teacher Ryland Grace wakes up from a coma on a space shuttle and can’t remember why he’s there. Soon, he remembers that the sun is dying, and that scientists on Earth have sent him there to find a solution. But soon after arrival, he discovers another ship, an unusual ship the likes of which he’s never seen — and realizes that he’s not alone.
It was my top priority to read Project Hail Mary before seeing the movie, in part because I thought Weir’s first novel, The Martian, was a much better book than a movie. I devoured it in 48 hours! I adored this story and how it turned into a buddy comedy. It almost follows the plot of a typical romantic comedy, only it’s platonic. More uplifting sci-fi!
I’ve heard the audiobook is great, too, but I chose to read it because I figured I’d zone out at the more science-y parts. You couldn’t go wrong with either.
Coming Up in April 2026
This month I have a big adventure planned — I’m traveling solo to Central Asia! This is a new region for me and one I’ve wanted to cover from the perspective of a solo female traveler.
I’ll be visiting Kazakhstan first, mostly basing in Almaty, with an overnight trip to Charyn Canyon, Black Canyon, Moon Canyon, Lake Kaindy, and Kolsai Lake. Next I’ll fly to Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and travel by train to Samarkand, then Bukhara, then Khiva, before flying back to Tashkent. While in Samarkand, I’ll be doing a day trip to the Seven Lakes of Tajikistan.
If all goes according to plan, these will be countries number 97, 98, and 99 for me.
In Uzbekistan, I’ll be trying out lots of crafty activities and diving into their textiles. They have some of the best silks in the world, and gorgeous traditions when it comes to embroidery, pottery, and wood carving. I also have a photo shoot planned in Samarkand.
I know a lot of people are apprehensive about traveling at the moment, so I want to share why I’m comfortable traveling here at this time. First off, these countries in Central Asia are extremely safe for travelers in general, and solo female travelers specifically. I’ve done lots of research and talked to friends who travel here often.
Secondly, these countries are never involved whenever violence or war kicks off in the Middle East. Life has been continuing as usual in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan.
And finally, I’m not flying through the Gulf. I’m flying Prague-Frankfurt-Almaty on the way there and Tashkent-Istanbul-Prague on the way back, which is an itinerary that allows me to avoid flight disruptions.
I’m really excited to share Central Asia with you.
Any plans for April? Share away!