Blog posts

One year old.

Joyeux Anniversaire/Happy Birthday!

Coffee and Chocolatines is one year old today! I can’t quite believe it is a year since I dipped a tentative toe in the blog water! Thank you so much to everyone who has followed our journey over the last 12 months and even more so to those who have promoted it, commented on posts and interacted with Coffee and Chocolatines on social media. It makes it all worthwhile for me knowing that someone out there is reading this. I have really enjoyed sharing our escapades with you, although as you will know I have gone a bit off schedule over the last couple of months for various reasons. Am I allowed to say I am also a little bit proud of myself for having started this and kept going, when at times life has been a bit complex? I love writing and hope that I am improving with age (or experience) so to speak!

Before starting (and it took me a while) I had read so many things about starting blogs, not to expect anyone to read it for quite a while, interaction would be hard to come by at first, too many blogs out there, etc, so to be honest my expectations were low. I also didn’t even know if I would enjoy writing about our life here or if it was even remotely interesting. I have been touched by the comments and encouragement. I am also hugely grateful to friends who have recommended it to others.

The journey settling into our life here (given the strange world we have all been living in with the pandemic) and renovating our lovely, but damp and cold, old house is going to be a long one. If the last year of blogging, and the last 2 years of living here, are anything to go by, it will not be dull! I hope that you will continue to join us as we experience life in South West France, the good and the not so good, as well as our very slow renovation project, not to mention our 5 character filled rescue animals and everything else that life throws at us.

To mark Coffee and Chocolatines’ 1st anniversary, the blog is slightly changing format. You have all been lovely and so patient listening to me droning on about the minutiae of our daily life, as well as triumphs and disasters. In the coming year I am going to share a monthly update on our life, but post each week on various subjects including the seasonal food feature, renovation project news, brocante finds and upcycling, more about the surrounding area and its history, places we have visited and of course any details we find out about our house as my research progresses. For those of you dreaming of making the move to France or anywhere else, occasional updates on making a life in a new country, especially with language and culture barriers to overcome and the adventures you have with that!

I would love to hear what you are interested in reading about, what you have enjoyed over the last year and what you haven’t!

I have also been quite hit and miss with social media so am setting myself the challenge of posting more photos in between blog posts. I am very interested in photography and one of the things on my Autumn list is to start using the camera my son Alex gave me instead of always my phone. Phones do take great photos and they are so handy but it would be really amazing to be able to zoom when I want to or use more of the features that a camera has to offer, like this evening when the moon is almost full and utterly splendid.

In the New Year I am also planning to make the blog available in French, in the run up to hopefully opening our chambres d’hotes next year. Plus look out for some video content in the coming months! Our Monthly Update will be published on the 1st of each month starting in November. I am continuing with the Seasonal Food and Recipes posts, but now on the second Monday of each month and the Places to Visit series on the third Wednesday of each month.  Keep an eye out for further news on plans for the Coffee and Chocolatines blog.

As for the last week here, I can’t believe I have been back home for 10 days already. The days have been warm and sunny, the evenings, nights and early mornings really cold! The views enchant me as ever and the outdoor space is fabulous. The night skies are light pollution free and breath-taking as is every dawn. I could take photographs all day every day if I didn’t have to earn a living! The rescue cats and dog are living the dream – well I’m not sure Bear would agree as his home has been taken over by 4 cats but they manage to rub along together. Our elderly neighbours continue to ply us with produce from their garden. They put us to shame with their energy and potager! Figs galore before I left, while I was away (Max is now a dab hand at freezing figs) and on my return, along with the last of the raspberries. We have a delightful shelf full of chutneys and jams now – a heart-warming sight and so satisfying. I find preserve making so therapeutic, a little labour intensive in preparation at times but so wonderful when the jars are all lined up, ready to see you through the winter.

This week we were given two crates of Physalis or Cape gooseberries (Les coquerets de Pérou in French). I wasn’t even sure if we liked them that much. They are, however, delicious and on researching them I have found that they can also be turned into jellies or chutneys – this week’s job! They are so pretty with their little paper-like capes enclosing a tiny orangey/yellowy fruit.

Thank you again for your company over the last year. I hope I can tempt you to continue to follow our dream (even when at times it is a nightmare – makes for entertaining reading I am sure!). Here are a few of my favourite images from the last year:

We look forward to sharing our journey with you and maybe welcoming you here one of these days.

A bientôt

Ali xx

2 Comments

  • Deborah Tate-Smith

    Happy first birthday to your blog, Ali. Always a delight to catch up on your goings on and mentally compare them to our lesser endeavours and adventures here in Southern Belgium.

    • Ali

      Thanks Debs. Hope all well with you all? Very cold here at the moment, and chimney sweep has been too busy to do the chimneys yet! xx

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