Blog in France

We’ve recently returned from our longest jaunt in Precious to date. A late cancellation by a group of anglers freed up a very convenient week for us: it just happened to be the one when Caiti would be over from Ireland presenting her thesis in Leiden in The Netherlands. So...

A recent two-day trip in Precious, the camper van, took Chris, Tobi the dog and me to Touraine. Touraine is one of the ancient provinces of France that existed until 1790, when it was subsumed into the départements of Indre, Indre-et-Loire, Loir-et-Cher and Vienne. The name Touraine is derived from...

Chris and I have just been on our second mini camping trip in Precious, the campervan. This time Tobi the dog came along too. We headed into neighbouring département Allier for two days, our first port of call being Bellerive-sur-Allier which is across the river from Vichy. The attraction here...

The EEC had its butter mountain in the 1970s and I currently have, if not quite a mountain, then at least a very sizeable hill of home-made soap! I thought it might be wise to find an alternative creative outlet for a while. Since I colour my soaps with various...

Chris and I had our first Covid vaccinations a few days ago. When the vaccination campaign began in France at the end of December 2020, at a pace that made even the slowest snail feel very nippy, we were sure we’d be waiting until the summer at the very least...