Blog in France

Portia has been going walkabout. She’s escaped twice since yesterday teatime. Actually, ‘escape’ sounds very dramatic, conjuring up images of fleeing animals and hours of exhausting chasing on our part across the Creuse countryside. When our animals get out of their fields, or slip off their tethers, they potter about happily, generally ending...

What better way to start the two-week Toussaint half-term holidays than with an outing. We’re long overdue one. We all seem to have had our noses to the grindstone without a break for ages now. So it was timely that the Arboretum de la Sédelles was having a special weekend...

  My dossier – and be grateful I’ve spared you the flacon d’urine. Apologies for the blurriness, my hand was tired after filling all those forms in! I think I’ve jumped through enough hoops now to get my permis de conduire. At least, I hope I have. All the paperwork,...

  Every summer and autumn these growths start appearing on the wild rose bushes around our lakes. And finally, I have got round to looking up what they are. Only taken seven years! And the answer is – Robin’s pincushion galls. Or rose bedeguar gall. Or moss gall. It appears...

It’s a celebratory week from 14th to 20th October. Quite enthusiastically in the UK, but less so in other parts of Europe, Wool Week is underway. In France there’s a lot more emphasis on Semaine du Goût – no surprise there. However, it depends a lot on where you live....