A queue that stretched along the street wasn’t what I expected when I turned up for my interview for a carte de séjour on Monday. I’d imagined my appointment was…
Spending last week painting the shutters on our future home was like giving a pig a makeover. The property may be without heating, lighting or plumbing but, hey, the shutters…
Now this is what I call a happy new year. 2020 is going to be big for us – this is the year we’ll open our cheese-and-wine bar. We’re down…
I enjoyed Christmas but it’s New Year I’m really looking forward to. That’s when we’ll be back with what writer Armistead Maupin calls our ‘logical family’. As opposed to our…
I reckon I’m word perfect on every Christmas song ever written. Why wouldn’t I be? They never change. What’s more, given that I work three days a week in London,…
I’m loving TV chef Rick Stein’s gastronomic tour de France – especially as my favourite restaurant proved one of his stopping points. I’m referring to the Vieux Logis in Trémolat.…
After months of what has seemed like little or no progress, things are starting to move ahead with the renovations. This week we’ve had photos from the builder-cum-project manager of…
Yesterday saw the launch of northern France’s first white wine, grown on a slag heap in Haillicourt. Rather aptly, its producers have branded it Charbonnay. It was only a matter…
I’ve now ticked a vital piece of work off my list of things to do before opening our cheese-and-wine bar: our wine list. And it’s all thanks to last weekend’s…
Selling alcohol in France is tougher than you might think. You need both a licence and a permit. Damon and I already own a licence, and now, after three days…
Puff, the magic dragon, really does live by the sea. As of last weekend, he’s set up home in Calais. The mechanical dragon, which is 25m long and reaches up…
The day the clocks go back is my least favourite of the year. I think of it as Blue Sunday. But this year, instead of staying at home and whingeing…
Blogging is about more than just writing. It’s about people – and this week I got to meet a fellow blogger whose musings I follow and who follows me back.…
It may be autumn in France, but I’ve been in Montenegro, where it still felt like summer. So this rather adult ice cream – Burgundy pinot noir and strawberry –…
The postman didn’t need to ring twice on Monday with Damon’s Irish passport. We were ready. It gives him – and by extension, me – the right to stay living…
Marionettes, street theatre, glove puppets, mime artists, robotic creatures… all of them were in Charleville-Mézières last weekend for the 20th Festival mondial des théâtres de marionnettes. And so were we.…
The builder, roofer, plumber, electrician and glazier all came to the property to meet us on our flying visit to Belvès this week. We also squeezed in giving one room…
The walled medieval city of Carcassonne is somewhere we’ve always wanted to go. So, this week we booked ourselves a long weekend there in January. We thought it would be…
Young people are put off drinking red wine because they don’t know what to pick and how to match it with food. So they’re drinking more white and rosé wines.…
Who knew cold leek-and-potato soup could be so tasty – and so refined? This week I made a vichyssoise and it was delicious. I love a cold soup on a…
