Blog in France

Bad luck if you’re struggling to learn French. There are even more words to learn than ever now! The 2012 edition of the Larousse dictionary has 32 more pages of words than the last one. Here are some of them: Astromobile (buggy for travel on another planet); Papy-boomeur (baby boomer);...

School has finished for Rors at last so all three kids are on holiday now. And les grandes vacances got off to an exciting start with the arrival last night of huarizo (llama/alpaca cross) number three. Lulin gave birth to Setanta at about 9.30pm, which is uncharacteristically late for a...

By definition and default expats are interesting people. How can someone who has moved to another country, another culture and frequently another language not be? Today I’m delighted to introduce you to an even-more-interesting-than-usual expat, Grigory Ryzhakov. Our paths crossed when I edited Grigory’s very original novella Usher Syndrome which...

Rors enjoying Wednesday chill-out time Today is Ruadhri’s last ever school-free Wednesday. During his six-year school career here in France he’s never had to go to school mid-week, apart from on a handful of occasions when kids have had to show up on a Wednesday in order to earn a...

In a week’s time, on 10th July, Frenchman Didier Bovard will be setting off on a 17,000 km voyage on a hydrocycle from Nuuk, capital of Greenland, to Paris. For once I’ve found out about something interesting before it happens! Now, hasn’t he got anything better to do, you may...