Blog in France

Caiti and trains don’t go. It’s starting to feel like every time she has to make a journey by train, something goes wrong. Admittedly, it has been a daughter-induced problem occasionally ie cutting it too fine to get to the station in time, but generally it’s been out of her...

There was an interesting article in the BBC News Magazine the other day about why French books don’t sell abroad – after being translated where necessary, of course. In a nutshell it says that French authors find it hard to break into the English-speaking market, largely due to a belief...

I had a very amateur go at serviettage (paper napkin decoupage) a while back, and not majorly successfully, so decided to give it another whirl, this time with a Christmassy theme. Serviettage is about sticking cut-out bits of napkins onto, well, pretty much any suitable inanimate object. It may not...

For such a big city, Bordeaux has a very small zoo in the middle of a housing estate, but it’s pretty impressive nonetheless. See what I mean about the zoo being surrounded by houses! Like Beauval that we’ve visited a few times now, this zoo has a fondness for white...

I’m down in Bordeaux this weekend. Since Caiti will be in the frozen wastes of Canada rather than the mild, mosquitoey flatlands of Aquitaine next academic year, this is my only chance to see the Christmas lights and market of Bordeaux. Lovely as they are, Boussac’s Christmas moustaches are on...