l'automne arrive bientôt

Beautiful sunshine this morning, yet there is definitely that hard-to-define tinge of autumn in the air.  The light seems just a little sharper, the colours crisper, as if nature is preparing itself for the cold to come.

Took these shots early this morning out in the valley and in my garden.  Hope you enjoy them.

le salon classique

It is a miracle that I can even lift my hands to the keyboard this evening to write this post.   A hilarious day spent on the river, brought proof of my inability to paddle a canoe in a straight line and of the existence of  muscles in this body of mine, never normally solicited.  I could have waited until tomorrow to put up a new post, but I'm not sure I'll be able to heave myself out of bed.!!

What do you think of these pictures?  To me the bone structure of this room is the classic French salon or living room.  High ceilings with fancy plasterwork, wall panelling, huge mirrors and herringbone wooden floors.

une jolie guingette

Now if I show you this photo, what do you think it is?

Does this help?

And if I tell you that 3 weeks ago none of this existed?

Why Mimi lives in France - French Settler Week - part 5

So we come to our last lovely guest  in my French Settler week, Mimi from Bonjour Romance.

If you don't know her yet, pop over.  She will talk to you of Paris, and of Romance.  She's also launching an e-magazine called Belle Inspiration an ambitious project, which I'm sure will be a huge success.

So tell us Mimi, what brought you here?

Thank you Sharon for including me along with these 

amazing women and fellow French Settlers!   

A French Settler's Journey

   What started out as a spur of the moment holiday in Paris turned into a life-changing meeting with destiny.   Okay…that sounds rather dramatic, but true.  I was still reeling from the recent loss of two dear loved ones.  I decided to get away for a week or two – that is when the fairy tale began.

Why Ange lives in France - French Settler Week - part 4

Part  4  and you're still here!  Thank you, thank you for reading our tales!  And thank you for your generous comments, and for saying that you're enjoying this little series!

Today we will hear from Ange, of Signed by Ange sportswoman, artist, soon-to-be fearless home-schooler to her three children.  I have always loved the way Ange writes, the first day I stumbled onto her blog I felt like I had pushed the door open on to a pretty fun party!  Ange welcomed me in, put a virtual glass of champagne into my hand, and we've kept in touch ever since.

She sells her works of art, and talks us through her creative process, that is when she's not screaming about having to paint her ceiling ...

Ange, come down off your ladder please and just explain to us all what a nice kiwi  like you is doing in France ...

How long has it been that I have been promising you the story of my travels to Wales and why I went there? Actually, don't tell me. Guilt and remorse are pushing me down, down, down into the depths of my paint tin for not having approached my blog since August 2nd. Tsk Tsk! Shame on moi!! En plus, it's nearly time to return to Wales again for my September retreat. Honestly though, first things first. You can't start a story in the middle. Let's go back to where it all began. Once upon a time in France...

Why Dash lives in France - French Settler Week - Part 3

If you were here Monday and Tuesday then Thank You for coming back ... if you weren't then I should explain that we are in the middle of my French Settler week, during which myself and four delightful blogging guests are telling our respective stories of how we came to live in France.  Monday's and Tuesday's tales have been dominated by l'amour - what will Wednesday hold??

My guest today is Dash from French Sampler.  If you interested in good books, history, cinema, then French Sampler is a blog for you.  Dash announces her point of view loud and clear:

"CULTURE IS NOT A LUXURY BUT A NECESSITY"

and there's always something to be learned from her posts.  One day it's the complete biography of an artist, the next a collection of stills from our best loved  films.

So Dash, tell us, how come you're living in the South West of France?

living the high life

My half English, half French partner; MG, Monsieur Grognon, (which is the verb for grumpy, in French, not his real name) and I had been together for a couple of years living in Paris, we both had good jobs and lived the high life whenever possible, unfortunately somewhere amongst all the gaiety, the bottom of the market fell out of MG's industry and he was made redundant, without two substantial incomes coming in we could no longer afford the vast rent on our swanky apartment just off the Champs-Élysées, I was not entirely happy with my job so we made the decision to move back to England to buy a house and settle down in the Yorkshire Countryside.

Why Tish lives in France -French Settler Week - Part 2

Thank you so much for coming back to read another tale of a fellow blogger who has chosen France as her home.  We're about to find out why, but first let me tell you a little about Tish Jett (I love that name, it sounds so chic!) and her (also very chic) blog called A Femme d'un Certain Age.

Tish has positioned herself as the last word on French etiquette, fashion and tips for being elegant and beautiful.  Her writing is always amusing,  her photos of everyday French women are a sociology case study in themselves,  I love her conversations with her virtual confidante Cherie.

 So Tish, tell us , why did you move to France.  What tale are you going to tell us, a tale of money, of undiscovered crime, of  bare-teethed ambition or of love??

All of us, the confederate of expats, immigrants, aliens (!) if you will, have been asked that question more times than we can count.

For me, the more interesting question is, “Why did you stay?”    Mine is a classic saga of how best laid plans can turn out to be better than one expects.

Here’s my story – why I came to France and why I stayed:

The job. It was a dream job, Style Editor of the International Herald Tribune. The risky part was that it was on a contractual basis; I was not an employee with benefits and security. At the same time I was a correspondent for the Chicago Tribune and had freelance assignments from the States, particularly during the periods of the couture and ready-to-wear collections.

Why we live in France - French Settler week

If there's one question I'm asked more than any other it has to be "What brought you to live in France?"

I thought maybe I'd tell you  my story,  then I invited some other bloggers who could also tell their tale of settling in France, and that is how we have got to where we are today.

Welcome to French Settler week!!

At last, we will discover what is the true driving force that makes this planet spin - is it ambition, is it money or is it just l'amour that can make a girl pack her bags and move to another country?

I get to start today and be the first to tell my story, but each day this week a wonderful and charming guest blogger will step onto centre stage right here and tell their tale.

So make yourself  a coffee, open a packet of popcorn, pour yourself a glass of wine - whatever.   Here we go.

As a small child  in England I think I always knew I was going to live elsewhere.  Not that I don't like the UK, I love it,  but I was fascinated by anything 'foreign'.

While at university in London, I found a loophole which allowed me to study two extra years abroad, first in Germany then in France.  I was paying my own way anyway, so I didn't need to ask permission, off I went.

I loved my year in Germany, in the pretty town of Tubingen.  Here I was the model student, to be found in the library, organising the students' union, performing theatre, you name it - I was up for it.

Financing your own studies at home is one thing, in a foreign country it becomes more complicated.  I realised I was going to need help for the second year abroad, and amazingly won a generous bursary award that would fund my year in France.  One condition attached, they got to choose the town I'd go to.

They chose Nice!  ....  What can I say?  It was a tough call, but someone had to go so I packed my bags and headed off for the sunshine on the Promenade des Anglais ... for a whole year!

camping in style

The lovely weather announced for the weekend has made me come over all colonial.

I think I need one of these in my garden

so I could do this in the evening

and this in the morning

Happy camping!
Happy weekend!
Back on Monday with something new!

photos  maharaja tent; cottars; cabbages and roses

a house to dream about - and then rebuild

Before I start I should say that this post comes with a health warning - not for the faint hearted!

Do you remember a couple of weeks ago, in a post about a beautiful house beside the river,  I showed you this photo of a small house for sale.

Well, I have received so many emails asking me more about the house and about buying old properties in France that I managed to arrange a visit of the property - just for you!

Steel yourselves dear readers - especially those of you used to slick real estate presentations, there is nothing slick about this.  This property needs a lot of work  total renovation, so what I show you today must be seen as a shell or a blank canvas, needing  a helping hand  major reconstruction to become habitable and then decorating   even more work to become beautiful.

French jam pots

When I told you yesterday about my plum jam, I forgot to talk about the star in any French jam story  Le  Pot Parfait.

Rarely has an object so mundane, so inexpensive reached such icon status.

la confiture de mirabelle

During the year I make a lot of different jams and jellies, but in late August I think I come to  the prettiest of them all - la confiture de mirabelle.  

This little round plum that fruits so generously looks like small jewels on the tree.

and when its stewed down for jam produces the most wonderfully cheerful orange-yellow.

l'escalier francais

In the same way that you can guess the nationality of a tourist from their footwear, so, I think, you can source a house by its stairway.

Look at these pictures, could they be anything other than French?   I love the curve of the stairway, the stone of the steps, the wooden panelling on the walls.

Notice the chandelier in the adjacent room, the symmetrical secret doors inserted into the panelling in the entrance hallway.
 
What I love about his sort of French building is that although it is grand and imposing, it remains  credible as a family home.  It could never feel quite as comfy as a grand English home, but I can see  this hallway with a pile of Wellington boots inside the door, and a labrador or two wandering out of the living room.

l'aperitif au bord de l'eau

The next time you want to impress someone with your extensive French vocabulary, try slipping in the word 'désuet' .  Pronounced  dez - u- ay .   This pretty word means 'filled with old fashioned  charm', and it perfectly describes the coastal town of  Cap Ferret , west of Bordeaux.

An aperitif at Cap Ferret is all about enjoying simple pleasures.    A few friends, no crowds, playing around on boats, a few oysters, a few shrimps,  children trying to catch crabs, and the odd bottle of wine.  

I'm out of here

The weather is beautiful, but if I stay at home I'll just keep ticking off my list of things to do, so I am out of here and going on a picnic!  See you later!

Thank you to   decorative county living     for these beautiful pictures.

a house to dream about

We have moved our horses to greener  pastures for the summer, which makes them extremely happy  ... and fat, so that's all good.   For me this means a long bike ride, or ten minutes in the car to go and check on them each day.

I drive along the valley, following the river, and always slow down at one particular village where there's a house that makes me dream.

The property looks pretty old to me, maybe older than ours, I should guess at least 180 years.  I don't know the owners, and I've never been inside but I always feel compelled to stop and gaze.  As you know, I have a secret longing to live beside water.

Somebody has planted two tall cypress trees rather too close to the corners of the house, and then forgotten to keep the virginia creeper under control, but don't you think the whole thing is so romantic?   Of an evening, the light beside the river is beautifully soft, the garden is quite big with an old outbuilding at the end.

There are signs of people coming now and again, but I don't think it's lived in full time.  I'm afraid I didn't even ask permission to show you these pictures, so I hope I don't get into trouble.

The house looks across the river to this view.  A small road with a couple of very attractive houses sheltered behind tall gates.

And at the  end of the road, leading into the village is this rather sweet house; small, neglected and .......

FOR SALE - any takers?!

faire le marché

A weekly or twice-weekly farmers market is a quintessential part of any French town, small or large.  Around here in Normandy we have some wonderful markets, with lots of good quality produce, sometimes mixed in with livestock.

In the South of France in the town near our friend J's house, the market is particularly lively and colourful.

I thought you might enjoy a sample of my snapshots.

help with a book

Do you know Amelia from 101 bird tales,  she has a wonderful, honest and touching blog.  She is a working artist and mother to a lovely daughter and to a precious son who suffers from aspergers .  She talks openly and touchingly about these important parts of her life.


At the moment she has a great new project to work on and she is looking for extra input.   She wants to write an art book teaching people how to enjoy being creative.  She has experience teaching and creating herself but has never written a book before.

As you can see she is very excited, but she wants some help with the book contents.   If you have a moment,  a minute will do it, pop over to her site,  or click on this link to  amelia's questionnaire    and give her your ideas.  It's such an obvious and simple  way for the blogging world to help out.

By he way she also runs an on line art course for those of you who feel that their artisitic side needs some encouragement.

blogging, sharing and crossing continents

As you may know we are lucky to have a guest cottage that  has often been a source of joy.  Friends and family come to stay, teenage children can organise sleepovers, and sometimes its open door welcomes new friends from across the world.

So it was recently.  A lovely lady who has been a silent follower of  this blog came to visit with her family.  I was nervous.  She was to be my first visitor via the blog and I was worried that things wouldn't live up to expectations.  Not that I tell lies here, simply that the dull side of one's daily routine doesn't make great blogging material.

From the moment  E and her crowd drove up our drive, I knew everything was going to go well.  There was an immediate friendliness and understanding.

I won't give you a blow by blow account of everything this dynamic family packed into their stay - although believe me it was impressive !   I will just say how much how much my youngest one enjoyed the company of jeune monsieur B! and how much I enjoyed sharing cups of tea with E, early in the morning before our families were awake.   We even got up early and walked in the forest before breakfast!

This was a whole new and most enjoyable side to blogging encounters.  For two families, living on opposite sides of the world, with very different life experiences, to feel so comfortable together is, I think, a gift!

So E, R, B, N and C  if you're reading this, a big thank to you all for being such delightful guests.

You're welcome back here anytime.