She loves me, she loves me not
I was looking from the kitchen door this morning, watching the goldfinches on the birdfeeder as they scared off any great tits and blue tits that dared to try and nibble a sunflower seed, when one of the children pointed out the two deer standing just yards away from the door. I’m not sure how [...]
Struthof – a brief history lesson
I don’t really know Alsace, it’s a long way from south-west France and we never visited the region when we lived in the UK. The region has a long and colourful history, which in the 20th century was substantially due to its next-door neighbour, Germany. Alsace actually formed part of Germany after the Franco-Prussian war [...]
Your holiday matters
Not many of us are booking next years holidays at the moment, preferring to think about what Christmas presents to buy, and how to pay for them. Apparently everyone in this household (except me) has a pressing need for an ipod shuffle and a new mobile phone. Let me suggest you cast such thoughts from [...]
Top three reasons to be a French expat
Tomorrow it’s my birthday, and I’ll be…a little bit older. It’s also exactly six years since we took over the keys for the house where we now live. Time to reflect on whether it was a wise decision moving to France, or whether we are frittering our lives away? When we came to France we [...]
Full steam ahead for france this way
I’ve been a bit quiet on the blogging front recently while I modernised the france this way site – I was feeling guilty that it looked a bit 1990′s, and should be more ‘interactive’ with visitors. While I’m OK on the technical stuff I’m completely rubbish on design, so it’s taken me two years to [...]
French expats returning to England
We went to a party last night for a family who have been here in France for a few years and are now returning to England. I can’t say I’m envious, I like it here! A good number of expats do return to England – perhaps 50% within two years I would guess from people [...]
Starting a business in France
Starting a business in France is something that has troubled me before, but this time…we’ve actually done it! OK we haven’t received our SIRET number (company registration number) yet – the application has to wind its way through French bureaucracy for a week or two first – but we’re on our way. Mrs B insisted [...]
The pleasures of chocolate
On their visit to Barcelona the children were pleased to find that there were long queues to enter many of the highlights (yes, in October). They were pleased, of course, because it was easier to convince Mrs B to forget about art and architecture and go shopping instead when faced with the prospect of two [...]
Cheap flights not as cheap as they seem
Ryanair flights from Bergearc to London, ten euros each. Now that sounds like a bargain. but have you ever booked these flights on a cheap airline? What starts out as cheap can rapidly become, well, less cheap. Imagine if I advertised a week in our gite for 50 euros. I’m sure it would be snapped [...]
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