Posted in French music, You Tube, tagged Dream a little dream of me, Enzo Enzo, French music, French songs, Les Yeux Ouverts on August 31, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Nothing happens in this clip from You Tube because this song was never made into a video, but this is one of my favourite renditions of Les Yeux Ouverts. If the tune sounds familiar, that’s because it’s the same as ‘Dream a little dream of me’. Same dog, different words!
If you [...]
Posted in France, France in photos, French Holidays, French food, French shops, Made in France, Travel, Uncategorized, tagged Boucherie Chevaline, Fontenay-le-Comte, France, French food, French food shops, French shops, Horse butcher, Horse meat, Vietnamese food on August 27, 2008 | 3 Comments »
This is a photo of a horse-butcher’s shop in Fontenay-le-Comte. I simply had to take a photo. Monsieur didn’t get it, but he didn’t grow up in a country where eating horse would be like eating the family dog. Kiwis just wouldn’t ever consider it. Because of that, for me, seeing horse butchers is half novelty [...]
Posted in Books about France - non fiction, Ex-pats in France, France, French stereotypes, Life in France, tagged C'est la Folie, Columns about life in France, English ex-pat in France, French animals, Jolibois, leaving London, Life in France, Michael Wright, moving to France, The Daily Telegraph on August 25, 2008 | 2 Comments »
If you’re a weekend Telegraph reader, you’ve probably come across Michael Wright. He’s one of the many Brits who’ve up-sticks and crossed the Channel in search of a better life, subsiding his new farm-country existence by writing a weekly column called C’est La Folie. The column is the inspiration for one of the most entertaining [...]
Posted in French music, Made in France, You Tube, tagged Chucky film, French music, French pop, Mylene Farmer, Sans contrefacon, Sans contrefacon Mylene Farmer, ventriloquist puppet, weird music videos on August 22, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Monsieur introduced me to the music and whacky videos of Mylene Farmer. Here’s one of my favourites, although if you get freaked out by ventriloquists’ puppets because of the Chucky films, this one may not be for you…
Posted in French books, French films, French kids, French politics, Uncategorized, tagged Amazon.fr, children's books, French children's books, French political humour, French president, Goscinny, Histoires Inedites du Petit Nicolas, Jean-Jacques Sempe, Laurent Tirard, Melissa Rossi, Petit Nicolas, Petit Nicolas Sarkozy, Petit Nicolas's friends, Rene Goscinny, Sempe, The Armchair Diplomat on Europe, Valerie Lemercier on August 21, 2008 | 2 Comments »
The first proper French book I ever read was a little orange paperback of Petit Nicolas stories. I was twelve or thirteen at the time, but to this day I love dipping into the tales of this lovable little rogue, who talks about ‘heaps and heaps’ (‘des tas et des tas’) of things, frequently escalates [...]
Posted in Art in France, France, France in photos, French Holidays, Travel, Vendee, tagged art at auction, fields of sunflowers, flowers, France, les tournesols, sunflowers, Travel, Vendee, Vincent Van Gogh on August 20, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Whenever I see a sunflower, I think of Vincent Van Gogh, that mad (not in a good way) Dutch painter whose dauby impressionist works depicting vases of these yellow flowers have a habit of giving the auction world a nervous twitch whenever one comes up for sale. Van Gogh painted the sunflower series when he [...]
Posted in Books about France - non fiction, France, French chic, French diet, French fashion, French food, French stereotypes, tagged Debra Ollivier, diets, Entre Nous - A woman's guide to finding her inner Frenc, French diet, French lifestyle, French stereotypes, French style, French weight loss, French women, French women don't get fat, French women for all seasons, Frenchified Women, Japanese women don't get old or fat, lifestyle, Mediterranean Women stay slim too, Melissa Kelly, Mireille Guiliano, Naomi Moriyama on August 16, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
There’s a popular stereotype about French women that conjures images of slim, elegant pouty beauties who grace sidewalk cafés as they puff sexily on cigarettes and sip espressos. These women go everywhere in a garter belt and stockings, never chip a nail and wouldn’t be seen dead in a pair of trainers. It’s a beautiful [...]
Posted in French products, French shops, Made in France, tagged Cosmetics, Face cream, French products, O & Co, Olive oil cosmetics, Olive oil face cream, Olive oil products, Oliviers & Co, Oliviers and Co on August 13, 2008 | 2 Comments »
This is my favourite face cream and it’s French (mais bien sûr…). Manufactured by an olive oil specialty company called Oliviers & Co, or O & Co for short, it’s nourishing, smells fresh without being fragranced and contains olive oil to feed your skin and keep it baby soft. It’s organic, accredited by ECOCERT and the only [...]
Posted in French food, French recipes, French supermarkets, tagged duck gizzards, French cooking, French food, French salads, French supermarkets, gesiers de canard, light dinners, recipes, salads on August 11, 2008 | 3 Comments »
I may have mentioned here that I love duck. French duck. All parts of the duck, except maybe the beak and feet. To my utter horror, I recently found that I have been particularly enjoying duck gizzards, or gésiers de canard. Mon Dieu. Gizzards? Really? Luckily for me, instead of rushing to the nearest loo [...]
Posted in France, French Holidays, Travel, Vendee, tagged Abbaye de Maillezais, Au Chant des Grenouilles restaurant, Boating in France, Boats, Charolais cows, France, French abbey, La Venise Verte, Maillezais, Marais Poitevin, row boats, Travel, Vendee on August 6, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Monsieur and I jetted off to La Rochelle recently for a long weekend in the Vendée region of France. The first couple of days were so suffocatingly hot that breathing felt like inhaling air directly from a fan heater, but then on the third day we awoke to grey skies, persistent rain and a drop in [...]
