Blog in France

Even though we’ve been here fifteen years now, somehow or other we always seem to forget just how grim January is. It really is the worst month of the year for weather. Admittedly, for our first five or six years it would be excitingly awful weather, with deep snow that...

We’re now a few days into the French Republican Calendar month of Pluviôse, which means rainy. It’s certainly proving to be that this year, although it did begin with a lovely, warm, dry, spring-like day that saw me out tackling some gardening jobs. Sadly it’s back to hunkering down indoors...

I’m a little late with this offering, which should have appeared on January 9 to tie in with that day being 20 Nivôse in the French Republican Calendar, and having the name of van. A van at the time the calendar was created was a winnowing basket, which was a...

Irish Aran sweaters: not quite as traditional as you might think I’m having a bit of a run-in with a sweater company over a knitting pattern I bought. The pattern in question is for a Foley clan Aran jumper. (Chris’s mother was a Foley, and it’s through his Grandma Foley...

We recently went on a geocaching trip to Chateauneuf-sur-Cher, which is about an hour away from home. Our first impression wasn’t so much that it was Chateauneuf-on-the-Cher (sur = on) as Chateauneuf-in-the-middle-of-the-Cher. The river bifurcates into numerous streams which split the town and power beneath its multiple bridges. The water...