Pay attention, village in the road
Cycling is out of the question for the next couple of days, since the summer weather of last week has returned to winter weather – very unfortunate because today our first holidaymakers of 2007 arrived. They might not have expected tropical sunshine, but rain, hail, and a howling gale straight from the north pole probably [...]
Back on the straight and narrow
The last few days have been a bit manic, what with visits to notaires and estate agents and a couple of other business type issues, but these are all solved (solved as in ‘we know what we are doing’ rather than ‘resolved’, since the outcomes are far from ideal) We do now have a plan, [...]
Swimming in Bergerac
The place where we live is quite close to the Dropt River, a tranquil river that spends eleven months of the year flowing quietly onward, as happy holidaymakers amble along its banks, artists paint pictures of ancient mills, and children play pooh-sticks on the bridges. But then, each winter for a couple of weeks, everything [...]
Good thats Christmas out of the way
With enormous pleasure we have now discarded all the Christmas decorations, lobbed the tree out of the door, and greeted in the New Year. We’ve also chucked all the Christmas cards in the fire, along with the addresses that we will spend half of next December searching for. 2007. Wow, when I was young I [...]
Christmas Review with Mr B
Random comments on Christmas in our household: Unfortunately Mrs B was right – Pere Noel did not pop a plasma widescreen TV down my chimney this year. Bit of a shame really because I wanted to watch High School Musical in super-screen mega-colour but what can you do? I have taken to wandering aimlessly around [...]
Hibernating with Miss France
When winter arrives we all tend to shut ourselves up inside for a couple of months. This does mean there is a bit less excitement to report here in the blog. Excitement being a relative term for our rural outpost in southern France, where someone crossing the road without looking both ways first counts as [...]
Winter in France is coming
Apparently we have just had the warmest autumn since 1950 in southern France, which has been pleasant for all concerned. Except the oil and gas companies, who have presumably been sat there hoping the phone will ring with an order, instead of the normal deluge of calls they get in October and November. (Yes, we [...]
All change
Well, it’s been a while since I wrote here…I twisted my neck the other day and haven’t done a whole load this week. On the mend now and I might even have a gentle trip out on the bike tomorrow. One curious thing. I thought lads in the UK all liked girls from southern Europe [...]
On the up
Wey hey woo hoo! Things are looking good! It’s been a week or two of successes here in sunny France, and I am sure you will want to share them with me. First you have to appreciate that I live a quiet, usually uneventful life and what I might thing is an IMPORTANT EVENT might [...]
Never go back
All is pretty quiet here at the moment. The holidaymakers are happy because the sunshine is back after a cold, wet day or two. I am happy because the holidaymakers are happy. One child is back to school and the other is about to go, after a summer that has of course whizzed by without [...]
Typical French Day
We’ve had a bit of a French time of it recently, lots of Peter Mayle moments, which is always good. Yesterday we went to a French neighbours house for a grand outdoor buffet with lots of good people, food and wine; today the local hunt boss came round with a man with a gun to [...]
Coming Home
Well Mrs B and the children made it home safely and all is back to normal. They were a bit annoyed with the cross-channel ferry company, who let them on-board in England at midnight and then turfed them out of bed and off the boat at 4.00 am. They had imagined that because they had [...]
Sundry mumblings
On the France This Way site I have a section about ‘what people drink in France‘ so that you too can sit in a French cafe with an authentic green drink, or know how to drink pastis. And a popular little section it is too – funny the things people look for on the internet. [...]
Home alone
Well I’ve been home alone for a few days now, so I thought I’d better check the list that Mrs B left me, to make sure I have done everything I’m supposed to. Turns out I’ve done none of them, so I’d best make a start. Top of the list, and bottom as well come [...]
All alone
OK two posts, one straight after the other. Has he got nothing better to do, I hear you asking. Well, yes, I need to go and clean the swimming pool and tidy up a bit of garden but this will only take 5 minutes of my time to write (and about 20 seconds of yours [...]
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