Blog in France

This Tuesday’s cheese is Cantal. Cantal (15) is one of the three départements that make up the Auvergne (the other two are Allier (03) and Puy de Dôme (63)). It’s one of my favourite parts of France. We had a great holiday near St Flour when Rors was a toddler,...

A recent geocaching trip took us to Étang des Landes at Lussat, Creuse. This is a 100 hectare lake, Limousin’s largest, set in 165 hectares of nature reserve. Apparently 600 species of animal call it home, with 50 of them being protected. Certain breeds of amphibians are amongst those menacé...

Yes, it’s The End Of The Wolrd As We Know It. And it’s not 21st December yet! Civilisation is crumbling. This notice on the door of the public WC in Boussac confirms it. It says: Because of so much nicking, we’re not supplying toilet roll any more. Now that’s sad....

publicdomainpictures.net It’s official. 2011 was the hottest year in France since 1900, beating previous record holder 2003. The average temperature of 13.6 degrees C was 1.5 degrees higher than ‘usual’. This resulted from a warm spring and a warm autumn. Summer was actually quite disappointing with July being colder than...

1st January every year sees new taxes appearing on the scene as the ever-ingenious politicians find new ways to wrangle money out of us. Amongst 2012’s offerings in France is the sugary drinks tax. A tax of €7.16 per hectolitre (= 100 litres) of such drinks, boissons sucrées, has been...