Lost-in-France.com

Another snippet of French history from Catherine Broughton

Chopin (1810-1849) was described by his mistress as "more Polish than Poland".  Although many think of him as a Frenchman, he was Polish and, although he lived in France for the last 19 years of his life, he never spoke French particularly well.

http://www.turquoisemoon.co.uk/blog/victor-hugo-continued-demain-des-laube/

The little fortified town of nearby Brouage has a claim to fame from several angles.  One of its famous historical figures is Samuel de Champlain (1574 - 1635), the founder of Quebec and "Father of New France". He was a navigator, a cartographer (he drew out the first accurate map of Canada), a politician, a mathematician and an explorer.

Hello

I live in the South West of France - just 60 kms inland from Biarritz - with DIY husband and young adult kids who are still cluttering up (literally) the second floor of our farmhouse.  We moved out 6 years ago and I work with local estate agents to help people find and buy property.

We were all sitting there in late October last year, staring at our TV and Computer screens and seeing report after report of bad news coming out of the International Banking and Property sectors. The sub-prime mortgage balloon had burst and brought major chaos in the financial markets, firstly in the US, and then rapidly followed by similar collapses in the UK, Germany and the Far East.  Bad news seems to breed bad news, even if there is little linkage between each reported event, and the mainstream popular media in particular feeds and thrives on it.

Crucial differences the British need to understand before they move to France ! These are some of the shocks. I hasten to add that I love France and have lots of French friends. Tomorrow some of the good points !

This is the story of an ageing Mercedes Sprinter which started out life as a commercial vehicle in Germany, became a motor caravan and moved to England, then to France. Please don't try this at home, children.

Just over six years ago, on 13th December 2005, I arrived in France to do some final checks on Les Fragnes before we went ahead and signed the Compromis de Vente.

It's easy to fall blindly in love with a building - or in our case, lakes - when you're property hunting abroad, without looking beyond it. Here are a few things to think about, especially if you're coming over with a family.

Snails for your supper. Catherine Broughton is a novelist, poet and artist living in the Charente maritime.

When the weather is damp (and earlier this year we had a lot of damp) my cleaning lady, Josie, comes round to pick up snails.  She lives in a flat, you see, and the grounds around the blocks of flats are already covered by other tenants picking up snails whereas she, being the cleaning lady for the Chateau, has large snail-gathering grounds at her disposal.

Gigi, the cat, has just brought another mulot into the house, and been quickly chased out. Mulot is the colloquial term round here for any sort of small country rodent.

The cranes (grus) are back. We last saw them in spring as they were flying north to their breeding grounds in northern Europe (Sweden, the Baltic sea and northern Germany). That was a welcome sight as it meant that good weather was coming.

Today we saw them heading back south to Spain where they overwinter. Some go to Algeria and Tunisia. Although a fantastic sight, and wonderful sound, it does mean it's about to get very cold. Winter follows the cranes as sure as night follows day!

This is my new house guest Wart. Wart used to live outside in the garden but he has recently decided that he doesn't want to live outside with all the other toads, no Wart has decided that he'd rather enjoy the comforts of home.