UnDiplomatic Wife

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FRANCE

France is a beautiful country with a lot of culinary wonders, divine designs & interesting culture. I hope to update this page with more of our travels!

Contents

  • 1 Lyon
      • 1.0.1 Driving there for the Festival of Lights December 2021
      • 1.0.2 Taking the train to Food Trip
  • 2 Divonne les Bains
  • 3 Paris
  • 4 Cote d’Azur

Lyon

France’s Capital of Gastronomie is definitely a must for foodies. Our first visit for the Festival of Lights we didn’t book any reservations in the well-rated restaurants so we couldn’t get a table. That’s why we went back just to food trip lol!

Driving there for the Festival of Lights December 2021

  • Driving to & from Lyon snowstorm vs clear weather Dec 10
  • Lyon Centre Château Perrache hotel review of the privilege hotel room & amenities
  • Château Perrache bar & breakfast review our dinner at the bar & the breakfast buffet
  • Le Grand Réfectoire Michelin listed resto in Grand Hôtel-Dieu a grand historical complex
  • Grand Hôtel-Dieu surprise ballet performance & Christmas market in historical hospital structure
  • Festival of Lights Dec 11 8:30pm
  • Five Guys our first time eating in this fastfood joint
  • Going around Lyon See the Bartholdi Fountain, Roman Amphitheater & Montée de la Grande-Côte
  • Brasserie Georges Serving fine food & beer for almost 200 years!

Taking the train to Food Trip

  • Taking the train to & from Lyon & getting around
  • Lyon Centre Château Perrache hotel why we had to change one of our rooms
  • LYON BITES: L’Institut Restaurant
  • Place Bellecour the best view is from the Ferris wheel
  • Shopping in Lyon King Jouet for kids & Zara Home for mamas
  • Saku Restaurant a Bib Gourmand Japanese resto that’s worth the detour
  • Parc de la Tête d’Or fun for the whole family including pets
  • Sometimes you just want casual Indian & Pizza
  • Brasserie Georges this time we had to line up & stay at the bar

Divonne les Bains

Divonne is literally 5mins from us, so we do a lot of our grocery & bread shopping there.

  • Carrefour
  • Aux des Armes bakeshop
  • Lidl

Paris

  • Hotel Henriette Paris

Cote d’Azur

  • Hotel La Villa Nice Victor Hugo in Cot d’Azur
  • Favorite Bites in Nice, Cot d’Azur

Welcome

Hello! I’m Ayessa, trailing spouse to a diplomat, mama to DiploBaby and DiploDog and founder of Declutter MNL. I love talking about how to achieve a minimaluxe lifestyle one step at a time.

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GOOD TO KNOW GUIDE

FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM @UNDIPLOMATICWIFE

Every year I add a little bit more to my Halloween Every year I add a little bit more to my Halloween decor collection so it’s not so heavy on the wallet. I’m so happy with this year’s finds & make sure to carefully store them so they have many more years of use.

It was @diplobaby’s idea to add googly eyes to the bats. So we did it together! I love the one eyed bats 🦇 and I love it when we decorate together! Definitely one for the core memory banks! 👻🎃🤍

I was tickled pink coz people would pass by and take pics, stare or even tell me good job. 🎃 Halloween is really my favorite holiday!

What do you think of our Halloween prep this year?

#udwhalloween
I couldn’t stop laughing! It was still a little I couldn’t stop laughing! It was still a little too long for him this year but we sure got a kick from it.

DM me if you want to know where to order!

#udwhalloween #diplobaby
VILLAGE PUMPKIN CARVING EVENT Every year I look f VILLAGE PUMPKIN CARVING EVENT

Every year I look forward to this event for families in our village. We also invite our friends outside the village coz it’s so much fun for families. Parents and kids can come in costume. It’s done beside a fabulous park so kids can run around and play.

The pumpkins 🎃 might be overpriced (the bigger ones went from chf 18 last year to chf 23 this year) BUT it includes the free use of NIFTY CARVING TOOLS, waste disposal, clean up & cute decor that the organizers have provided.

We draw together. TD removes the guts. Then @diplobaby & i do the carving together with our son and it’s a controlled way of showing him how to use the tools in a safe way. Which is something I appreciate in Europe.

One year we tried pumpkin 🎃 carving at home and clean up was a totally nightmare. Never doing it again!

Then when kids and parents are are hungry we can buy food & drinks. 

We go home with a carved pumpkin 🎃 & don’t have to do the clean up. The pumpkin guts are also turned into soup by the organizers.

It’s also a good way for parents to unwind, catch up while the kids play in the playground. We usually see our neighbors here too.

It’s a win win for everyone & it reduces unused waste. I love it so much!

We never did pumpkins before coz it would rot@so fast in Asia. But i  the past 3 seasons of doing this I’ve learned so many tips and tricks for pumpkin 🎃 carving - especially how to prevent molds and insects. Let me know if you want me to do a separate post on that!

#udwingeneva #udwhalloween #udwholidays #halloween #halloween2023 #halloween2023🎃  #pumpkin🎃 #pumpkincarving #pumpkincarvings #pumpkincarvingideas #diplobaby #diplofamily #expatfamily
Hi guys it’s been a while since I’ve posted ab Hi guys it’s been a while since I’ve posted about our #DiploHome.

This is our BALCONY/TRASH SEGREGATION AREA.

Because we use it to entertain in SPRING & AUTUMN (too hot & too many insects in summer) I made sure that the trash segregation remains AESTHETIC by using white @ikeaschweiz SEGREGATION BINS.

So far SWITZERLAND TRASH SEGREGATION in our experience is even more complex than GERMANY but it has led to at least 50% RECYCLING rate which is pretty good, even though Germany still has the highest rate of recycling 66%

Let me know if you want to know more about how we manage trash in our village.

#diplohomegeneva #whiteliving #balcony #aesthetic #aesthetic #whiteinteriors #whitebalcony #expatliving #expatingeneva #expatinswitzerland
Come visit @fcbarcelona SPOTIFY CAMP NOU MUSEUM wi Come visit @fcbarcelona SPOTIFY CAMP NOU MUSEUM with us!

- tour their cool museum
- see the former record holder before @leomessi who was actually PINOY 🇵🇭
- view the construction site of the new stadium
- check out all the merch
- see @diplobaby beat ROBOKEEPER

Definitely a highlight of our Barcelona trip!
This place is a must for any football fan and Messi fan! It is also home to many of the women footballers who won the @fifawomensworldcup 2023 and a great training ground for future football stars.
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