The arrival of spring is welcome news – even if means fewer fondues. Bowls of warm cheese have helped us get through many a cold winter’s evening in Lille. Before…
I never thought I would be happy with a grade C exam result – until this week, that is. I’ve been graded as C1 in spoken and written French. That’s…
Our plans to open a cheese-and-wine business continue apace. This week we signed up for a course with the Guild of Fine Food on how to sell cheese. The course…
The first episode of a new series of Channel 4’s A New Life in the Sun aired this week. I gave up watching British television when I moved to France,…
“I love you more than cheese.” That’s what my Valentine’s card to Damon said. I thought it delightfully apt – we’re both big cheese fans. Hence our plans to open…
When you’re greeted at the mairie by crossed arms, you know you’re off to a bad start. And when local officials use the word ‘non’ more often than General de…
Last week’s property hunting in south-west France proved even better than we might have imagined. We now have not one, but two properties in the running. The first is in…
One of the best bits of property hunting is the worst bits – the agents’ details. We’re visiting properties in the Lot valley this week and we’re having a hoot.…
Finding out that escargots de Bourgogne are not French is like learning the truth about Santa Claus. Who would have guessed that when you eat a snail called an escargot…
Exchanging my UK driving licence for a French one should be straightforward, shouldn’t it? That’s my hope, as this week that is precisely what I have applied to do. At…
Sometimes a film comes along that blows you away – such was the case with Au Revoir Là-Haut. Black humour, pathos and tragedy are balanced carefully in this visual delight…
The coming year promises to be an exciting one. If all goes to plan, 2019 will be the year we buy a property in south-west France and prepare to launch…
This week I have done my bit to help rid my widowed mother-in-law of the ghost of Christmases past. It’s been three years since her husband died and she is…
The internet is great for some sorts of shopping, but sometimes you can’t beat the real thing. That’s why we headed to Paris last weekend. If you can’t find that…
At last, I have done well in a secret Santa. Usually, I go to great lengths to buy someone the perfect gift within the budget, only to be given utter…
If you’re a sponge for culture, a trip to the Louvre-Lens might be just the ticket. This satellite of Paris’ famous art museum has breathed life into the former mining…
About a week ago, someone must have flipped a switch here in Lille and it suddenly became Christmas. Mind you, we’re several months behind the UK – there, some TV…
I don’t want to give you the wrong impression about us, but we have been looking forward to this year’s wine fair in Lille for some time. After all, it’s…
This week I became a published author. To my delight, my biography of 1960s French icon Françoise Hardy hit the shelves on Monday. The book, Catch a Rising Star, is…
Our hopes of opening a cheese and wine business in the pretty Dordogne village of Issigeac fell through this week. Someone else signed a compromis de vente on the property…
