Bonjour à tous, I hope you are all well? In a week where sensible precautions against Covid were scrapped in the UK along with free tests, where another person died as a result of being shot by a hunter here in France and we woke up on Thursday morning to the news that Putin had invaded the Ukraine, I have stopped feeling sorry for myself and changed what I was going to write about. I am going a little off-piste this week and not writing about the minutiae of our life here in France. I had also thought to give you an insight into changing rural addresses in France. However…

Hello All I hope you are all OK, especially those of you reading this in the UK where I understand the weather is atrocious? I hate to say it but after torrential rain here, a lot of which managed to get into the house, we had a couple of warm sunny days – almost spring-like! The rain then returned, but hopefully not for long so the wet floor gets a chance to dry out a bit. Last week was a week of disruptions, nothing new there. In between work and helping our neighbour with trips to the vet as her cat was unwell, and collecting some friends who have returned…

Bonjour à tous I hope you have all had a lovely week. My week has been challenging for various reasons, including a battle with Instagram and some family issues. For that reason not much has progressed renovation-wise, although I have done my first kitchen job in between work meetings, clearing off the old shelves above the sink so Max could remove them. Now they are down, the next job is Max’s – filling the many cracks in the wall! I did also finally paint the last in the set of 3 wicker boxes that will act as storage places for socks, etc in our bedroom, and also made the latest…

Bonjour à tous Happy February to you all. The last official month of winter. This year I am counting the days to warmer weather as it has been so cold. I love each season for different reasons, but in an old cold stone house with a serious lack of comprehensive heating, winter has taken on a different dimension – mainly the numerous layers I have to put on each day to stave off frostbite, the chilly bathrooms, seeing one’s breath as you work and chilblains! The days we have had of sunshine and frost are truly glorious. I have bored you with the photos as it is all so magical.…

Hello everyone How was your week? Mine was cold! Just for a change. However the weather is lovely – freezing but sunny most days. The deep chill continues. Today it was still -2°C at lunchtime. The views are stunning, the air crisp and cold, energising but making you catch your breath too. Even our water is colder than usual, which makes sense really but bracing for my morning splash of cold water on my face! The sun breaks through early mist each morning, the lake freezes overnight, the surrounding countryside is painted white each day by the hard night-time frosts. The garden is like concrete, so no potager digging for…

Bonjour à tous I hope you are all well and enjoying January? The weather here at the moment is so cold. Each night the thermometer dips to minus figures. We had one night, the first in ages when the temperature stayed at 0°C – a cause for celebration! We have had cold crisp sunny days, freezing fog days where everything is shrouded in a bone chilling cold, a light dusting of snow greeted us on Wednesday morning and hard frosts daily. We wake most mornings to a white landscape, each and every blade of grass and leaf frosted, glittering in the sunlight. Quite the most breath-taking sight, like magic fairy…

Hello Everyone Early last week we were basking in 18°C sunshine, by Wednesday it was 6°C at best during the day. We had snow last week, briefly, a light dusting like icing sugar sprinkled on a cake, not really enough to say it had snowed, but pretty nonetheless and a new experience for the 4 rescue cats. They lasted outside for a while chasing snowflakes, trying to work out what the cold white stuff was that was settling on their whiskers. Then one by one they came back inside, the pads on their paws swollen with cold, fur damp, and they snuggled down by the roaring woodburner in the kitchen.…

Hello Everyone Happy New Year again. I hope you all had an enjoyable start to the year? We had a very quiet evening: supper, a movie and then toasted the New Year in with Chateau Bourguet’s ‘Bulles d’Alayrac’ (sparkling wine from our local vineyard), while watching fireworks at Chantilly (the armchair version for us). On Sunday we had our recently widowed neighbour for a belated New Year’s lunch, which I hope she enjoyed although she says the portions I serve are too large! I have decided to take a little time this year to reflect on the last year and work out my resolutions for 2022. Last year was quite…

Hello again Everyone I hope you are all enjoying the last day of 2021. As I, and many others, have said many times, what a year! There is no sign of the pandemic easing its vice-like grip on the world for now. At some point the vaccine needs to be made available to the whole world to try and stop new variants emerging. Perhaps 2022 will see that happen. For now a round-up of what December has had to offer us in our little world tucked away in a beautiful corner of the Tarn in South West France, including a beautiful full moon, known as the Cold Moon. Early December…

Dear Friends I hope you are all well and had a good Christmas? I realise that it is a while since I have posted and the last couple of months have not been my best blog-wise. I hope you will stick with me as I get back on track. When I set out to write this blog about our life in France, I didn’t want it to be an ‘Instagram perfect’ view of life here. I thought my approach would be an honest view of starting life in a new country in a crumbling old place in ‘la France profonde’ (literally deep France, but means provincial France, sometimes loosely translated…