It’s “les grandes vacances”! A time when much of France draws to a standstill, unless you’re in a tourist area, in which case the place will be rammed and, if it’s anything like here, will burst into life. All good if you’re on holiday or retired but if you’re a family of four with zero…
In a previous job my manager commented that I was a “bursty worker.” I asked her what she meant so she explained that she’d observed that I would go at a project 110% and then take some time to recharge: I worked best in short (or sometimes sustained) but focused bursts. Luckily for me that…
I’ve set up this page to share my thoughts on the kinds of questions that come up when someone thinks of relocating to France. As my experience was of relocating as a family, there are relevant questions and answers here to my direct experience. Also we came here with a view to setting up our…
We first tried this walk in early spring (2018). It was warm and sunny in the valley where we live, but a few hundred metres up on the plateau there was a chill in the air and still thick ice in places on the ground. We weren’t dressed for it so were happy to abort…
Where to start? This blog was supposed to be about our life here in France – particularly all the things we discovered and enjoyed about our life here as a family. Last year, with both little ones becoming more… functional, possibilities were opening up for more interesting journeys: instead of days out revolving around access…
I’m still trying to wrap my head around the planting schedule for the South of France. As this will be the first full year of attempting to cultivate our patch, it’s time to try and work it out! J is convinced that our efforts last year were a bit rubbish because the soil quality is…
Today has been a busy day in the vegetable garden. Over the summer things have been growing quite merrily – including the weeds. I had reached the point where I was reluctant to water knowing that a good percentage of it was feeding the weeds rather than our vegetables. You can’t not water a vegetable…
Ah, 2020. Who knew come the holidays we’d still be living our own version of confinement! Obviously lots of people are travelling and there are tourists everywhere. While there is an increase in people locally I would say it’s mostly holiday home owners; the numbers are down, which is good news for those of us…
Okay, so it’s not an official challenge, but I have set myself a goal of riding all the VTT routes graded blue in these two maps: The VTT Pyrénées Cathare map, which includes 6 blue routes. This covers the area from Belesta to Lavelanet and Montesgur, and extends to Lac du Montbel. And the VTT…
It’s hard to believe but the time has flown by – three whole years! While it hasn’t been without downs as well as ups (some of them pretty difficult to deal with) it has undoubtedly been one of the best things I’ve ever done. I wouldn’t change it for the world. Having had a pretty…