Blog in France

It has to be said, the French aren’t very good at organising things. On what am I basing this generalisation? Last week! Éléa brought us some lovely Bordeaux goodies We had a stagiaire (work experience student) with us last week. Éléa came up from Bordeaux with her mum to spend...

Here’s a list of the ten bestselling books in France for 2014. Merci pour ce moment (Thank You for This Moment) by Valérie Trierweiler. This memoir by Président Holland’s former companion sold 603,300 copies. Cinquante nuances de Grey (50 Shades of Grey) by E.L. James (575,600 copies sold) Central Park...

The 2015 recensement – census – is underway in France. It got going on 15th January (finishing 14th Feb for smaller communes 7,000 inhabitants) and a week or so later for larger places. The census is an ongoing affair in France, with certain parts of the country done each year...

Surreal conversations are a way of life for expats. You suddenly find yourself being washed down a river of total incomprehension. That happened to me today, but this one wasn’t of my making – for a change! I was at the pharmacy buying some French Lemsip equivalent (not quite the...

Yesterday, as you are no doubt aware, was a bad, sad day for France. An act of terrorism directed at the office of Charlie Hebdo, a satirical magazine, has left twelve people dead and twenty-four injured, four of them severely. You can’t also have failed to notice that the message...