Blog entries

Green Tea and Too Much Plastic

lesfragnes — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 11:40:00 +0100

Environmentally-friendly agencies in France are at long last turning their attention to the problem of overpackaging. This is something many French manufacturers are well and truly guilty of. We’ve all come across that horrendous, thick plastic that many items are packaged in, particularly DIY tools and toys. Even with a very sharp carving knife, and sometimes even a saw, it takes quite a battle to get into and I’ve had some nasty cuts from it. I shudder to think how long that wilRead More...

Grève News

lesfragnes — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 17:32:23 +0100

I’ve just been reading the Creuse edition of La Montagne. Grève news I’m afraid. There’s news of a boycott at Boussac College, a ‘manif’ (short for manifestation – a demonstration) outside Lycée Jean Favard, Further afield a surprise strike (grève) by the National Dock Federation have disrupted the port at Sainte Nazaire, theRead More...

From Mardi Gras to Winter Holidays

lesfragnes — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 20:22:48 +0100

The winter holidays have just finished here in Creuse, but are just starting in other parts of France. Les vacances d’hiver are probably the strangest of the school holidays for ex-pats. There isn’t anything similar in Britain or Ireland. There you get a few days’ half-term but here we have a full fortnight of time off. These holidays originated as Mardi Gras (ShrRead More...

Painting the French way

lesfragnes — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 18:09:59 +0100

French painters are revered the world over. Not so French paint. It regularly gets a very bad press. We know quite a lot of people who won’t touch it, but get relatives to bring English paint over for them. In fact, there are companies that have been set up just to distribute English paint over here – it’sRead More...

Winter Olympics

lesfragnes — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 17:51:22 +0100

The 21st Winter Olympics has got off to a sad but extravagant start in Vancouver. It’s a dreadful shame what’s happened to the Georgian luge athlete, Nodar Kumaritashvili. But when you think about it, the Winter Olympics features an array of deadly sports, with the exception of curling. Almost every activity sees the athlete moving at tremendous speed with veryRead More...

The Great French Breakfast

lesfragnes — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 19:57:35 +0100

French breakfasts are brilliant. I don’t think any other country can pack as much chocolate into a single meal as the French can. Hot chocolate to drink, pains au chocolats and brioche smothered in chocolate spread to eat, or maybe a bowl of chocolate enhanced cereal. Our particular favourite is muesli with no less than three different sorRead More...

French education is the best

aillis — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 07:46:01 +0100

For various reasons most our children ended up in the Catholic school system which is semi-private ( the fee is 150€ a term and the school meals are more expensive ) but our youngest Xav has done most of his time in the state school. I don't think there is any difference in educational standards its just in the state sector you lose about 2 weeks each year due to strikes so the teachers set a good example. A couple of weeks ago they had a one day strike protesting against theRead More...

Public holidays in France 2010

lesfragnes — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 16:44:28 +0100

We’re in a holiday hole at the moment No official days off coming up for another two months. That’s ages! In fact, 2010 is a bit of a bad year for days off as three of the jours feriés fall on a Saturday – 1st and 8th May and Christmas Day – and one, Ascension on 15 August, is a Sunday. That seems to be cheating. The children certainly feel hard done by with fewer days off school this year!

So here are the pubic holidays for this yearRead More...

Candlemas

lesfragnes — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 09:58:29 +0100

Today is Chandeleur - Candlemas Day. It marks the midway point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. So winter is halfway through. That’s encouraging news this year as it’s been a tough one here in Creuse. But is it over yet?

The weather today will give us a clue as to what’s in store for the coming weeks, according to some old French sayings.

Chandeleur noire – hiver a fait son devoir.

Chandeleur trouble –Read More...

Paper paper everywhere

janetlangman — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 08:57:32 +0100

The French adminstrative system has a well deserved reputation for impenetrability and being completely unavoidable. Estate agency has of course its own complement of documentation and many trees have died in the service! Today I am in the Orthez office. Not a good start - a buyer has backed out saying they arent going to buy because they cant fit their fridge into the kitchen without knocking down a wall. Hmmm ......as Marge Simpson would say. Another client hasRead More...

New month - start a blog!

janetlangman — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 09:32:27 +0100

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.

I will be blogging about my life as a DIY assistant, mum, estate agent and wannabee crafter and hope you will enjoy being part of my life.

Today, as on all MoRead More...

Quick recap

lesfragnes — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 16:14:54 +0100

You might have noticed there was a big gap in my blog postings – from July 09 to January 10 to be precise. I’m not quite sure why it happened. We certainly were very busy during the summer with the gite and our llama trekking business. And during the summer months we’re outside pretty much all the time so not much computing takes place. However, I did keep going with my own blog at www.bloginfrance.com so you can catch up with happenings during those months there.

Officially accounted for

lesfragnes — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 13:34:58 +0100

Nouzerines in the snow - with daughter on sledge!

The census taker has just left. We’ve filled in all the official forms and won’t be recounted for another five years. That’s because we’re in a commune of less than 10,000 inhabitants (in our case, a lot less!). Censuses in France take place on a rolling basis. All small communes are censused every 5Read More...

A winter snap

aillis — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 08:09:40 +0100

We had been watching the weather in the UK and were thinking we had missed the cold snap, we didn't get our first frost till the week after Christmas, but then last Saturday we had a 6inch dump on us overnight.Driving was impossible and as Paulien was suffering from nicotine deprivation we had to trek into Plestin in our ski survival suits. It took about 3/4 of an hour a walk you could normally do in 25 minutes and its much more tiring walking on soft snow. The main road from Morlaix to LanniRead More...

"Bloavez mat " tout le monde

aillis — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 12:46:52 +0100

I've had a bit of a nightmare with my Internet connection this month just over 4 weeks without a regular service and trying to get it fixed is difficult. France must be the only country with a TV program mocking "SAV " ( service apres vente ) they are just not interested, first you contact the service provider which has a call centre in North Africa, someone speaking french equally as bad as mine telling me to do things I have already done and then over the course of two weeks they sentRead More...

Websites about Brittany.

Jilly — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:52:23 +0100

Hi Everyone,

I thought being that everyone on here must love France, I live in Brittany, and I thought perhaps people would like to see my new facebook group called 'Interesting websites in Brittany' http://www.facebook.com/...p;ref=nf, I am trying to collate a group for everyones eyes of interesting, bizarre, funny websites about BRITTANY. Take a look and if anyone has a said website let me know, (can be a blog as that has a website address) and I can then feature you with aRead More...

Chapter Seventeen: Pompier And Circumstance

French Times — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 14:20:09 +0100

It can happen anytime time between the hours of eight in the morning to eight at night. It starts with an eerie low bass note and builds to a shrieking crescendo of earth moving, body piercing cacophony of sound, like something crawling from the depths of hell, with a serious headache, indigestion and a major root canal problem.

For those old enough to remember, it sounds like the old air raid sirens from the Blitz, for my younger readers it's the beginning of a very hairy fairgroundRead More...

FIRE! Or How I learned to become a 'ramoneur anglais'.

Bertie — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 09:21:50 +0100

Fire! Or how I learned to become a “ramoneur”.

After two freezing winters ("it never snows here," said the French neighbours), we decided that the romantic appeal of the 'poêle à bois' was becoming rather jaundiced. With firewood available from our little copse, and generous grants available from the Read More...

The quiet season

aillis — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:50:18 +0100

Its very quiet here now since the autumn half term the place is empty of visitors for the first time since the beginning of April so we can shout and scream and no one hears us except perhaps the neighbours.The weather has changed like a switch as soon as the last visitors left at the end of October , the last two months have incredibly dry and warm and now its the rainy windy season which is good for the ground and gardens.i had a quick visit to the UK to pick up a few goodies I Read More...

My neighbour

aillis — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 08:58:34 +0100

We had quite a shock last Saturday in the bar someone mentioned Francois Rolland had died of an aneurysm, he's our neighbour just lives a few fields away. Regular visitors will have seen him working the fields or he would often drop in for a chat leaving the engine of his John Deere tractor running as he had a quick beer and gossip with me and Paulien. We have known him 17 years and he lived at Coat Aillis before we bought the place and he had a large hanger in pRead More...